Many Ways to Trim a Tree

After three hours, my house was transformed. Welcome Christmas! I set up two trees. The front room tree is the elegant one, inspired by my mom. In fact, since she only puts out a little fiberglass tree nowadays, she gave me all her tree trimmings a few years ago. I added them to my growing collection. The front room tree is decked out entirely in clear or white ornaments, with glass icicles and white lace draped over the branches. Each year, Asherel and I go out and buy one new crystal ornament for the elegant tree. Sometimes it takes all day to find the one we both agree upon. It is a tradition I cherish. The tree is very lovely, as it was in my parents' home. One might even think, upon entering my house and seeing the elegant tree, that I possess good taste.

Next, we travel to the back room, where I have another tree. It has a completely different flavor. That one is covered with homemade decorations from my children's early years, as well as decorations my father gave me my first Christmas out on my own. Some of those are chipped in places. After all, they are now over thirty years old. That tree is bright and happy, with a touch of nostalgia. No one would mistake me for possessing good taste, but they would know I cherish my children and my own parents. Decorations from friends and other family members also adorn that tree. It is a hodgepodge of loving contributions that reminds me of family.

I wish I could put a tree in every room, one for every mood and every facet of my family's personalities. It would remind me that we are made up of many parts, all different, all valid, all contributing in some way to the entity family. Sometimes I forget that. It is as though I think there is only one way to trim a tree.

1 Corinthians 12:13-20 (NIV)
For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body---whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free---and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. [14] Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. [15] Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. [16] And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. [17] If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? [18] But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. [19] If they were all one part, where would the body be? [20] As it is, there are many parts, but one body.


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