O Christmas Tree

The ornaments are packed away.

The lights are taken down.

The tree placed back in the box, awaiting a trip to the attic. 

Yet tonight, visions of a Christmas tree ran through my head.

The tree was perfect and full, tall and stately.  The evergreen needles full of color.  I watched as clear white lights were draped  around the tree faultlessly.

Then suddenly the picture perfect tree was decorated with broken glass bulbs.  The jagged edges cut through the elegance of the picture.

I paused for a moment trying to take it all in.

I know that the Christmas Tree represents God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Everything about Him is perfect.

The lights represent Christians – we are the light of the world.  God has us perfectly placed where He wants us for His purpose, even when we can’t see what that purpose is.

But the bulbs, why would they be broken?  They tarnished the picture.  The world around us is lost and broken.  They are part of His picture, even if I don’t take time to make them part of mine.

I was part of that world too once.  I was one of those broken bulbs.

As I came to that realization, I was taken back to the tree.  As light hit the broken bulbs, a clear glass coating completed the ornament and made them whole.  They started to reflect the light as if the light was inside of them also.

O Christmas Tree, how beautiful with the bulbs reflecting the light.

I was reminded that is what I am called to do.  I am connected to God.  I am a light to the world.  He has perfectly placed me where He has plans for me to be.  When I share what God has done in me, I am able to give hope to those I come in contact.  As they internalize the hope I have in Christ, they also become whole and start reflecting the same. The finished God-product of every broken person is  healing, wholeness, and reflecting Him.