“Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around Him were shouting, ‘Praise God! Blessings on the One who comes in the name of the LORD!’ ‘Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!’” Mark 11:9-10 NLT
The Center
Walk His Way Revisited
As one final celebration of 25 years of marriage, we decorated our Christmas tree in our wedding colors: ivory, grey/silver and dusty rose/pink. We have tried to collect a Christmas ornament in those colors every year (though I don’t think we quite made it.) For example, the first one was a little ceramic heart “pillow” that I painted. The ruffles are ivory, the pillow pink, and in silver: “Our first Christmas together 1990.” There are snowmen/women, birds, a Victorian Santa head with a dusty rose hat and ivory beard, and a pink and rose flower garland, delicately winding all around. Homemade half sand dollars, spray painted silver, with shells and white agates (all of which we found at two of our favorite beaches over in Trinidad) and added tiny, pink, silk roses. There are delicate snowflakes and a pink angel my mother-in-law crocheted. We were married in the Glenburn Church and we found a beautiful silver, steepled, glass church with pink flowers. There is an ivory cross with grey and pink shells, and one of tin metal, stamped in the middle with a heart. We have two very small, antique glass ornaments we found shopping on an anniversary trip one year. Also, a very playful one of two pink seahorses with grey highlights, kissing and forming a heart. Last summer, on vacation in Virginia City, we got a beautiful bell, painted with a church much like ours, that reads: “Hand and heart shall never part, love never fails.” We added simple grey/silver, pink/rose bulbs and small white lights, and used an antique tablecloth with red and pink roses to complete our tree. I have to say it’s our favorite tree we’ve ever decorated.
Our favorite decoration, however, is a clear, frosted, plastic nativity ornament of Joseph and Mary, holding baby Jesus, forming a heart. It is so simple, yet stunning. I tend to rearrange ornaments over and over again and since my husband had hung them with me, I asked him if it was all right if I messed with the tree until I got it “just right.” He said “No problem,” as long as I left this ornament where it was. You see, it’s in the very center, right where it belongs.
All the wonderful memories of the last 25 years that are represented on our tree pale in comparison to the eternity awaiting us made possible by the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. So, even as we celebrate the love and joy of our Silver Christmas, we want to make sure the center of the celebration is the birth of our Savior (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Thank You, Lord, for memories and the celebrations we get to have here on Earth, but help us to remember them in the perspective of eternity and keep our eyes focused on Your Son, the center of it all. Amen.