Decorations - and a Blessing for the Christmas Tree

Is your Christmas tree up yet? Ours is not, partly because I'd really like to get the multiplying dust bunnies out from under the sofa before we bring anything else into the family room, partly because the days just fly by and we never seem to get to the task (that, and Grant and I are a little more tired than we used to be during Advent... I have renewed appreciation and admiration for all you parents, especially those parenting more than one child!).

I must confess, I don't feel like I need a whole lot of decorations up this year, as I could spend hours just sitting and watching our seven-week old daughter. That's probably predictable, and maybe a little corny, but I think it may be good for me, too - to think about what this season of anticipation is really about, to be thankful for life and love, to do just one thing at a time, to be forced to slow down.

One of the Advent devotions Grant and I are reading together is titled "Hurry Up and Wait." Do you feel that push/pull in your life these days? Stores would have us hurry up and shop, here at church we ponder what it means to wait on God. With all of the commitments of the season - at work, at school, with friends and family, even at church, it can feel like we hurry from one thing to the next without even being able to catch our breath sometimes. Some of us even like it that way. Maybe that's why God came down as a baby - to convince us to slow down enough to notice the little things, to break into our lives with a schedule we can't adjust by sheer force of will (a baby is hungry when a baby is hungry, after all, convenient timing or not), to be as vulnerable as we are, to encourage us to love.

Maybe I'll appreciate our Christmas tree, and all the other gifts of the season, all the more when it finally is up, having been made to wait.

Here's a blessing for the Christmas tree at your house. It is adapted from Sundays and Seasons Year A 2008 © 2007 Augsburg Fortress. Even if your tree's been up for weeks, it's not to late to bless it!

This reading and blessing may be used when the tree is first lit, or at any other appropriate time.

Psalm 96:11-13
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
let the sea thunder and all that is in it;
Let the field be joyful and all that is therein.
Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy at your coming, O Lord,
for you come to judge the earth.
You will judge the world with righteousness
and the peoples with your truth.

Blessing
Be praised, O God, for the blessings around us that point to you.
Be praised, O God, for the signs of this holy season that awaken us in wonder.
Praise for the steadfast green of this tree, like your love, O God, enduring all seasons.
Praise for the light that illumines our darkness, like Christ, who brings light to the world.
Join our voices with those of the tree and of all creation, who sing at your coming:
Glory to God in the highest,
And peace to God’s people on earth.
Amen