Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas just isn't Christmas without a real Christmas tree?

“Why not rent a Christmas tree?”….. Found out that people are making e- business renting out Christmas tree…their advertising seem so convincing, as a good solution to reduce resources wastage and carbon print, after Christmas was over these trees can all go back to place or replant somewhere else. Well it sounds to be a noble act for saving the earth or world.

Somehow some questions pop up from my mind … “Do we really need a tree for Christmas? and Why?” … “Do we become so lost today? Christmas just isn't Christmas without a real Christmas tree? Where by we no longer understand what we most needed and wanted… What is the best for us? We love the superficial so much until we rather shut our eyes and ears, harden our heart and mind …even though in the dark silent night we fail to see the star shining for us…we fail to accept the truth that baby Jesus was born for us. We fail to hear the good tiding even though it exists as history and proof to us…yet we are too busy juggling about a tree which been chop off from it’s root or care to take out a plastic tree from a dusty box which we kept in the store room last year …sound like a pity joke for you and me…

and why if we remember to celebrate jubilantly for His birth each year as a special occasion …then why we fail to remember and accept His death for us which so signification for our liberation and humanity. A death sacrifice that no one can buy or pay, except Him alone.

Hope this Christmas is going to be special …hope we left alone all those Christmas trees, gifts …things that we don’t really need but come to accept Jesus Christ as our savior …Isaiah 53...

53:1The people reply, "Who would have believed what we now report? Who could have seen the LORD’s hand in this?
53:2 It was the will of the LORD that his servant grow like a plant taking root in dry ground. He had no dignity or beauty to make us take notice of him. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing that would draw us to him.

53:3 We despised him and rejected him; he endured suffering and pain. No one would even look at him--- we ignored him as if he were nothing.
53:4 "But he endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne. All the while we thought that his suffering was punishment sent by God.

53:5 But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received.
53:6 All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the LORD made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved.

53:7 "He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, he never said a word.
53:8 He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people.

53:9 He was placed in a grave with those who are evil, he was buried with the rich, even though he had never committed a crime or ever told a lie."
53:10 The LORD says, "It was my will that he should suffer; his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. And so he will see his descendants; he will live a long life, and through him my purpose will succeed.

53:11 After a life of suffering, he will again have joy; he will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.
53:12 And so I will give him a place of honor, a place among the great and powerful. He willingly gave his life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven."