The Nail

For a large majority of the population, Christmas is a time of joy.  I'm not saying that everyone is giddy about all the things that Christmas brings, but most of us find at least one or two things that we like about the holiday.  My favorite things about Christmas are the extended time off (I'm a teacher, so I get a few days to just relax and enjoy this time of year) and cooking all the things we have adopted as parts of our family's Christmas traditions.  I love getting up and doing the stuff I want to do especially when I can involve one of the kids.  Some folks love the giving (and getting) of gifts.  Others look forward to the traditions of Christmas themselves, the things we only do at this time of year.  There is one tradition that I look forward to, if you can call it that, that our family started a few years ago;  the placing of the nail on the tree.

Christ came to Earth in the form of a baby on Christmas day, most folks know this even if they don't place their faith in Him as their Savior and Lord.  I know that He didn't actually come to Earth on "Christmas," that Christmas is a created holiday, but He he did come to us on "a" day some 2000 years ago, and I choose to celebrate Christmas as that day.  Christmas is much bigger than that though, it's the tip of the proverbial ice berg when it comes to the Christian faith.  If all Christ had done was come to Earth on that day then He made a mistake, and Our God makes no mistakes.  Everything He does is purposeful.  The bigger thing that we need to understand is that, even as a baby, it was Jesus' plan that day to redeem us from our sinful state some thirty years later.

To this end, we place an eight inch hand cut nail on the Christmas tree first, before anything else goes on it.  The nail is unseen, placed way back in the branches against the trunk. If one of the family didn't show it to you, you'd never know it was there.  The nail is also the last thing to come off of the tree when we take the adornments down from it.  When we put it on and take it off we remind ourselves that Jesus came on Christmas so that He could die on Easter, so that our redemption could be completed in his living and His dying.

I don't want this to be a downer, on the contrary, this nail represents the greatest news I could ever hope to share with you.  I have a Savior named Jesus who: left His throne in Heaven, came to Earth as a baby on Christmas day, live a perfect and sinless life (something I could never do), He told us about the way to Heaven through belief in Him, took my sins and the sins of EVERYONE upon Himself, suffered unimaginable pain and grief, died a death meant for me, then....... rose three days later from the dead, He defeated Satan, redeemed my soul (and yours), ascended back to Heaven, and sits waiting at the right hand of God until the day He will come to claim those who believe in Him as Lord and Savior.  That is the Good news that the Nail represents to me.  I am His, and nothing will separate me form Him now or ever.