A long time before God spoke to His Son, Jesus, and said, “Let us make man in our image.” God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit were planning how to make man. Then on the fourth or fifth day an angel, Lucifer, asked, “What if man sins?” A hush fell over all creation. Till this timeless moment in eternity, nothing had sinned. No one, or no thing, had even thought about sin. So, God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit agreed on a plan. The plan we now know as the plan of salvation. Then they went on with the work of creation.
Jesus agreed willingly to die, to pay for all sins. All that remained was to decide how.
Stoning was first suggested. “Please, do not let one of us be used to take the life of Your Son,” the stones pleaded with one chorus like voice. (Stones once had the most beautiful voices in all of God’s creation.) Together, they promised to remain silent, if, while Jesus was alive on earth man would shout, “Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!” Since that happened on the Sunday before they crucified Jesus, the day we call Palm Sunday, the stones have always been silent.
It was then suggested, since Jesus’ disciples would be called “fishers of men,” that perhaps He might be washed overboard during a bad storm on the Sea of Galilee and be swallowed by a giant fish. The fish all protested, “Please do not let one of us be used to take the life of Your Son.” Instead, they wanted to warn man, even before Jesus was born. Maybe one of them could carry a prophet of God in its stomach to a sinful country, so the people would come to repentance. Perhaps that way Jesus would not have to die.
It continued. One by one everything in God’s creation asked not to be used to take the life of the Son of God, till only the trees remained. Then something strange happened.
The trees could not agree. Since God enjoys harmony, He divided the trees in two groups. Trees with thin leaves, called needles, and the rest of the trees were each given their choice. The trees with needles repeated the words, “Please do not let one of us be used to take the life of Your Son.” The rest of the trees knew if nothing volunteered to be the instrument of Jesus’ death, all of mankind would die. So, in obedience and love, with branches bowed low, they sadly said, “Let one of us be used to take the life of Your Son.”
Now the trees did not know how God would judge their deeds. To the trees with needles God decreed, “You shall remain as you are, evergreen.”
To the trees with leaves He decreed, “You shall every year, without exception, brightly and boldly proclaim to all mankind, that My only Son, Jesus, died on one of your kind, so that man may have eternal life.” “Once each year your leaves will tell the story.” “When man sees the golden brown leaves, he will see Jesus’ sun baked body.” “Some of your leaves will turn bright red, to remind man, that Jesus shed His blood on a wooden cross on Calvary for their sins.”
So today, at Christmas, the evergreen, tells about the birth of Jesus, if man adorns it. However, each year, God, himself, adorns the leafy trees for being a willing and humble servant.
(c) Copyright 1995, Walter C. Mielke, I Cor. 13:11,12
Used by permission by the author. Thank you, Walter!
Steve
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