Since I have been in school, we have always waited to get a Christmas Tree until I got home. What this usually means is that we get the dregs off the tree lot. This year, however, between the death of my grandmother and me trying to finish my exams, it got until to day and we had no tree. Our usual lot had been sold out for a few days with even the dregs being snatched up.
My mom, insisted that we needed a tree for Christmas, but to me it seemed a waste of money to spend premium prices for a tree for a holiday which would be over before we even knew it. That was when I got my brilliant idea.
Over by the garage, sat a lonely Umbrella tree. Neglected unwatered, and half dead. It was perfect. I drug it into the house, and presented this tree to my mom as an alternative.
She was not impressed.
After much logical reasoning, interspersed by laughter, she agreed that it would work with a little bit of trimming. So I cropped off the dead limbs, puled out a few lights and bows, and in my most Charlie Brown/Linus moment created, what I think is a rather beautiful centerpiece for our family celebration.
And if I may wax theological for a moment, I cannot think of a more appropriate Christmas Tree. In a way it is a celebration of every person who is neglected, forgotten, dried up, and in need of a Love which can make even the most ridiculous stone, the Cornerstone. Merry Christmas!
Subway Prophet 