NEW LIFE IN DECEMBER

“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” (Exodus 3:2-3)

Like most children I loved Christmas, and I loved December. Christmas meant a wonderful Christmas tree and lots of presents, candy, and other goodies. December also meant winter which included Christmas vacation from school and snowstorms. Snowstorms were a blast! They meant sledding, and making snowmen and having all sorts of great fun. Well, as a fifty-something guy with rapidly graying hair, I’ve cringed each year when the calendar hit December 1. (That was also my late father’s birthday, so maybe that has something to do with it, too. I think of my Dad’s slow descent into Alzheimer’s disease and his death as a feeble old man in a nursing home.) Now, December means cold, snow, shoveling, trying to start old cars in cold weather, and financial pressure. There are also some years we haven’t done much to celebrate Christmas and largely because we will be moving from our residence in the relatively near future, we’re not doing any home decorating or Christmas tree this year. Although I HAVEN’T liked Christmas much as an adult, I will say I DID enjoy singing Christmas carols at church each December and having an Advent wreath at church. Each Sunday of Advent, we’d light another Advent candle and Mary Ann would share a devotional about the meaning of the coming of Jesus into the world.
And, we always had a “cool” Christmas Eve service. I’m really missing that dimension of it this year.

I came down with a cold on Thanksgiving, which has now infected my son Jon, and one of my coworkers at the answering service has it. This weekend, the cold is actually worse than it was last weekend. I awoke today quite congested, coughing, and just plain feeling “lousy”. I work at the answering service all afternoon, so I got up early to go grocery shopping. Stepping out of my old Subaru in my driveway and about to unload the groceries, I beheld a strange sight.
There among the lifeless and bare branches of the bushes and little trees that line our driveway was a cluster of beautiful green “brand new” maple leaves. They caught my eye, and I was startled. Like Moses with the burning bush, I went over to investigate. I’m NO botanist. I’m not really a gardener. I DO pride myself in lawn care and in cultivating some really green and impressive lawns, but that’s only because I’ve followed the instructions of those who really know what they’re doing. “HOW could there be fresh new maple leaves?” I wondered. Our yard is no more than a third of an acre, but this Fall I raked up forty-two large bagfuls of fallen dead brown leaves, and frankly there are STILL dead leaves scattered around the lawn even after all that raking. NEW green leaves, like you’d see in May? Was that even POSSIBLE? I didn’t think any new leaves like that sprouted and grew in DECEMBER.

When we moved into 40 Harrison Street back in 1987, there was a beautiful clustering of what I think are mostly lilac bushes which grew on the small strip of land between our driveway and the driveway of the house next door. In the summer they were so thick and green and beautiful that you couldn’t even see the property next door. The quality of the strip of bushes has deteriorated over the years, however. Gradually, weeds, and other varieties of bushes and trees invaded and took root in the midst of the lilacs. Back at the famous April Fools Day blizzard of 1997, the bushes were crushed down by the weight of fallen and drifted snow. Probably about a third of them died at that time. They were never the same after that. More and more, little oak trees, little maple trees, and all sorts of other growth filled in the holes. Today that strip of growth is a mishmash of lilac and all sorts of other stuff.

Particularly during the spring, that growth will EXPLODE. You can have literally hundreds of shoots and branches protruding into the driveway; to the point that it makes it difficult to park and exit a car! A least twice during any year, I get out a big ladder and an electric trimmer and cut down all that growth that protrudes into the driveway, and Andy Mason next door does the same on his side. But even those trimmings are not always enough. You’ll still get some shoots and branches growing into the driveway area. Probably another three or four times each year, I’ll go up the driveway with a pair of hand clippers, and just trim those back to neaten up the look of the driveway.

The last time I did that was probably about six weeks ago. As I examined the new green maple leaves, I realized they were growing out of an area I’d clipped several weeks ago. I also noticed that there were several other similar clusters of maple leaves growing out of spots I’d clipped. I’d heard gardeners talk about how pruning brings about new growth, but I guess I’d never seen such a vivid example of that.

Standing back and looking at the “dead” brown brush all along the driveway, and seeing the perky new maple leaf clusters popping out in spite of them was, well, a very beautiful sight indeed! Yes, there will be bitter cold and snow coming and those new maple leaves won’t last, but they are a reminder of the new life that’s coming next spring and that those trees that appear dead are actually very much alive.

In a year when we won’t even have a Christmas tree and when I really don’t feel like celebrating, those leaf clusters were sort of a “Christmas tree” to me! As the famous cartoon reminds us each year, “Christmas doesn’t come from a store...Christmas means a little bit more”. The true meaning of Christmas is God’s love for mankind and sending His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world.

Have you ever wondered about the verse in Matthew that says, “and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”? You know, there IS no Scripture in the Old Testament that literally says Jesus would be called a Nazarene, so at first glance that Matthew passage appears to be incorrect. Yet, it’s drawn from Isaiah 11:1, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:” In the Hebrew, “branch” is the word “netzir”. Thus, in Matthew 2, “Nazarene” and “netzir” are kind of a play on words. It would like saying that a guy who frames pictures is the “FRAME guy from FRAMINGHAM”...something like THAT.

There are other Old Testament passages that promise that King David would ALWAYS have a descendant of his sitting on the throne. Now, those verses also definitely seem to be incorrect. Both Mary and Joseph were descendants of King David. But there had been no king or royalty in that line for over four hundred years at the time of Jesus’ birth. By this time, they were just ordinary blue-collar people. Yes, Jesus Christ, as fully God and fully Man lives and reigns forever as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and so that promise about the Davidic line is also fulfilled.

A guy I know happened to tell me this week that “God often raises new life out of the ashes of death”. I needed that word, and I needed to see those fresh new maple leaves today!