There is something so special about visiting someone at Christmas and seeing all the decorations on their tree. It tells their story. Our tree holds ornaments from when WE were children. We collected an ornament every year we’ve been married and picked one for every Christmas for each of our kids. There’s a cloth sleeve on our tree that held my husband, Ken’s, eye glasses from three years ago at Christmas when he had surgery to implant a port for his chemotherapy to fight cancer. There are memory ornaments that have a sweet photograph of each of our pets who are gone now but never forgotten. There are several coffee cup ornaments and other collections of ornaments of things that bring us joy.

Collections. Memories. Milestones. Our tree tells our story. Each beautiful and unique. Even a new tree with all new ornaments tells a story of new beginnings…and hope. And when we are done with all that we have to hang on our tree we all stand back and watch as the star or the angel is placed at the top and we call it complete. And we gaze at this beautiful collection of past, present and even future that is our story.

There was another tree that tells God’s story. Cut down and fashioned into the shape of a cross and on it was placed the precious Son of God. He revealed God’s story of love, of the Lamb of God, Jesus, who was slain before the world was even formed (Revelations 13:8). God had seen that dark day even before He created the earth, and yet He still grew the tree and sent His Son to carry all of our stories, all our sin, ALL of it…Jesus took it all…willingly…to that tree. When He was about to take his final breath, Jesus said, “It is finished.” John 19:30 (NKJV)

Jesus bore all of our sins on that tree so that we could have a new story to tell. One that says we are forgiven and that we now have the hope of eternity in heaven with Him. That’s the greatest story ever!