I was thinking this morning about taking down the Christmas tree and putting away all the little ornaments on it. There are trees you might see in catalogs where all the ornaments match and the “theme” is gold, red, or blue. That is not what our tree looks like. It is a mixture of sparkle and humble homemade. Look closely and among the beautiful ornaments, we have received as gifts over the years – collector’s items and blown glass from trips there are the truly special ones. There are more than 100 ornaments not counting the plain glass balls and glass icicles. What is amazing is it’s not the expensive fancy ornaments that are the most important – it’s the homemade ones: the photo ornaments made at school, the old ones that are tarnished and worn, the ones with memories attached to them; “Baby’s First Christmas”, the little shoes from Grandma with each child’s name on the underside, a few from my husband‘s childhood tree – little gold paper stars and wooden clothespin reindeer with googly eyes.   From my childhood tree there are little Santa corsages made of fat, red pipe cleaners that became ornaments on the tree after we wore them on our coats to church at Christmas. There were the pretty little angels my grandmother made out of scraps of tablecloths and old lace edged napkins. All precious to me – every one of them reminding me of Christmas’s past.

There was a story in the Washington Post in early December about a family asking for help in finding their Christmas ornaments that had been mistakenly given away. Their elderly mother had passed away and their father had hired someone to help him clean out the house. The person looked through their ornaments and decided to keep the nice shiny ones and throw out the ornaments that were considered less valuable. This was the opposite of what the “children” wanted and they tried to get them back offering to buy them from anyone who might have come upon them at the Goodwill Store. These were the ones precious to the family and the descriptions of them in the newspaper sounded like some of the ones we had, photo ornaments and souvenirs. It is hard to explain to someone why the reindeer missing a leg is important to you. But we have the priceless only to us collection too — surfing Santa for Connor and Casey’s skating girl. For years there was the “Honeycrisp Bear” who came in the cereal box (I don’t know who bought that sugary cereal) for years and years it played a song when you when you squeezed its paw until after almost 20 years it became a buzzy whine. But finding it and putting it on the tree was always special.

Think of the things that become important to you and precious to you not because of their intrinsic value, but because of their connection to someone you love. How important that representation of them becomes.   This should help us understand how valuable we are to God. I remember, Rubel Shelly, a pastor in Nashville talking about how our painted rocks and finger paintings are precious to God. How our efforts, as small and unimportant as we think they are are precious to God because he loves us so much. Picture God surrounded by your painted rocks and amateurish artwork, that he loves because it was made by you. In this season when we thank God for coming to earth think about that tremendous love.

There is a lovely description of Christmas as God touching earth with his little baby feet, but months before his feet touched the ground and first took steps he was carried, swaddled and cooed over — God, the Creator of the Universe, entrusted to human hands. I’m making an effort this year to appreciate the love that I am given that is not based upon effort. Love that is being — not tied to doing. God’s unconditional love. It is being loved and loving in return.   Our tacky ornaments are on the front of God’s tree, not hidden in the back. We are members of the body of Christ and all have the privilege of being children of the God most high. Live there and be there – and love others in return.

The great struggle of the Christian life is to take God’s name for us, to believe we are beloved and to believe that is enough.

– Rachel Held Evan

Oh God, help us see ourselves as you see us—beautiful and beloved. In moments when we feel that we are not enough, surround us with your love and remind us that we are yours. Amen.