Page 8 - 2018 AdventDevo-Flip book

Monday, December 3
The Christmas Tree
“…and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

Scripture: Isaiah 55: 8-13, Matthew 1:22-23

Nearly twenty years ago, Kathleen and I spent our first Christmas togeth-
er as a newlywed couple in Boston. We were in our final year of law
school, living in a small apartment near Boston Common and the Massa-
chusetts State House. As was the custom for students in graduate school,
no real time could be spent preparing for the holiday or getting into the
Christmas spirit. The specter of final exams had been haunting us since
Thanksgiving, and would not leave us until just a few days before Christ-
mas.

One evening after classes, we decided that we were not going to spend
our first Christmas without at least putting up a tree. It would require an
adventure across the city, but we were willing to make the time. It had
been easy living in Boston without the need of a car until now. Having
no personal vehicle (or donkey) to haul the tree required a little more
creativity and effort on our part. We bundled up to leave our apartment,
walked across the Common, and boarded the T, Boston’s subway.

After a long adventure across town on the Green Line, we arrived at Star
Market, pronounced “Stah Mahket,” and selected a small tree. We hur-
ried back to the T stop, carrying our little tree together. And yes, we
took the tree on the subway all the way back to our apartment. After we
set it up and decorated it, we knew that it had been worth our strange
little journey.

This was not the last time we would go on an unusual Christmas journey
together. The following year, we walked several blocks down Massachu-
setts Avenue in Washington, D.C., carrying a slightly larger Christmas
tree up the hill to our apartment building. Even today, I believe Kath-
leen can still feel the strain of that adventure in one of her hands. How-
ever, as the case was in our first year, the Christmas journey together was
worth it. And just like Mary and Joseph’s Christmas journey, Christ has
always been with us along the way.

Phillip Peterson