Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, February 2, 2025
I enjoy Christmas trees, ours and others. If I were in your home, gazing upon your tree (no, I don’t expect yours is still up, although ours is), I would like nothing better than a tour of your tree. I want to hear the story behind your ornaments.
I hope you are like-minded, because I want to give you a partial tour of our tree. Let’s make it an “I Spy.”
Do you spy:
1) The ornament I made in grade school? Hint: it’s a Styrofoam ball with random décor poked into it. #WhatWasIThinking
2) A Teddy bear named Theodore? My bedtime stuffed bear companions were Theodore and Sluggo. My father named them, and would weave fanciful stories in which Theodore was the perennial hero and Sluggo the bungling villain. Sluggo is also on the tree, but out of camera view. My father would think that was appropriate.
3) A mailman dressed in dark blue, holding an envelope? This little wooden ornament honors the way my husband and I met, after a mutual friend gave him my address and letters began flying back and forth between Nebraska and Alaska.
4) A red truck in a snowy scene with a Christmas tree on board? This ornament is special because a good and talented friend crafted it, knowing I liked the fabric’s artist.
5) A church? Centered on the tree, and central to my life, all these years.
6) A needlepointed candle? Another hand-crafted gift, this one is from a batch of six that a beloved boss stitched for me forty-three years ago. A brilliant teacher, administrator, mentor, and European Study Tour leader, she volunteered every Sabbath as a greeter at the Kindergarten Sabbath School door.
7) David and Goliath? This one is new this year, discovered in a little nook in a secondhand store. It says: “Then said David, ‘This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand.’ And David took a stone, and slang it, and David smote the Philistine in his forehead and slew him.” I think of this as our “slang, smote, slew” ornament; I believe it’s the only violence on our tree.
8) Two girls together, one with an apronful of apples? A long ago gift from one of my dearest friends, who just recently moved into a memory care unit. She still remembers me when I call, but I brace myself for the day she doesn’t. And I comfort myself with the fact that when Jesus comes, our minds and bodies will be fully restored – even upgraded.
9) Three hearts? There are many more on the tree, because, as Christina Rossetti’s poem says, “Love came down at Christmas.”
10) Two wooden nativities? One is from my oldest sister; she bought it in Jerusalem where they traveled while on vacation from their mission tour in Kenya. This is our first Christmas without her. The nativity reminds me that Jesus came, not to give us a food-filled, fun and festive holiday but to give us eternal life, with reunions galore on Resurrection Day.
Yes, I know today is Groundhog Day. Maybe next year I’ll track down one of those critters, ask it to pose for my camera, and write about it. But this year, I’m thinking about our Christmas tree, and all the memories I see amidst the colored lights. As I’ve mused on them, I realize they’re not just memories; they’re blessings.
I spy God, Giver of all good gifts.