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.

Why?

What started this whole thing?

On November 3^rd 2006, I was reading Psalm 3 while I sat in my old pickup eating lunch.  I remember the day because I had decided 2 days earlier that I could no longer stay in the office where I work and eat lunch, so great was my distaste for my current working conditions.  I had just started the month by being newly demoted from a position in sales to a position as an office team member.  I was infuriated by my employer for a lot of things, most of which, in retrospect, she was not responsible for, but at the time she was the target of my anger.  I remember it was Psalm 3 because I had decided that I would do anything to avoid going back into the office earlier than absolutely necessary, and reading a Psalm a day would delay that distasteful act for a couple of minutes at least.  And so it was that I mechanically picked up the copy of the Bible that I kept in the console two days previous and bean reading God’s word for the first time in a long while.  I “read” the first two bits with all the enthusiasm I could muster, which wasn’t much.  And I started the same way on day three, when I got to the word BUT.  

³But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

That one sentence started everything that has occurred since.  

I started writing, journaling really.

I wrote letters to my Sunday school class.

I wrote letters to my pastors.

I wrote 2 or 3 bible studies.

I wrote comments to be shared during a choir presentation.

I wrote articles I shared, and some I didn’t.

I started looking at life differently;  as something worth living.

About 10 months ago, I realized that an idea I had for a story, which I had shared with a few friends hoping one of them would take the idea and run with it, was really meant for me to write.  I shared this revelation with my wife and a couple of close friends, but so far, I have avoided it and the advise they gave me concerning it.  To tell you the truth, I’m actually kind of afraid to do it; the storyline that I outlined is just way too similar to my own life.  I’m afraid of how much it may hurt to go through the process of writhing the story (if that makes sense).  My wife, who I claim now is the most Un-Nagging woman to whom any man could ever hope to be matched, made a sideways suggestion a few weeks ago, that if I was going to avoid writing the book, I could at least write a blog.  I laughed and suggested it could be called, “Running away from God.”  One thing leads to another….

So this forum will be a mix of stuff:  some that I wrote several months/years ago, and some that I have taken pen to recently.  I don’t figure that any of it will really change the world, but if any of it gets through to you I’d appreciate you letting me know.  

Joy… and Peace,

Sal