"all of the trees will clap their hands"

(Click on the pics for a larger view if you'd like. It's so pretty!)

This is an old blog, about one of our yesterday year's trees. I actually wrote this when she first arrived, before we had wrapped her in lights, draped her with garland, and adorned her with all the ornaments that we hung on her arms. Still.... this blog is worth sharing again.

Have you got your tree up yet? We just got ours today. Shame on me for getting it this late. I should have gotten it sooner, for I'll have to take it down too soon! Wow, she's a definite beauty. It's a real one. And a BIG one! Fat! More than twice as tall as me. And white. We had her flocked... because we rarely see trees with snow on them around here. Therefore, we pay for our tree to be sprayed with the fake kind in order to look like it. :)

Looking at this whoa-filled wonder, I cannot help but wonder who it was that planted this particular tree's seed to begin with? I wonder how long ago they planted it? and where? and on whose land it stood? No doubt, it was God's hands that water it, but I wonder at the hands of the man that cut her down.... the ones that loaded her up on the truck that she would ride in... and who it was that brought her to my town, unloading her again and nailing her to a stand so that when I walked by my eyes would see her? This tree that God grew KNOWING even as she was growing that at this very moment right now in this particular year in this very season that it would be standing inside my very own living room inside my own house and be starring at her mesmerized... and admiring her beauty. Not only that, God already knew that I'd wonder what I just told you that I wondered about it. He even knew that I'd wonder about it to you. And He knew, too, that I'd say that He knew. (Wow! Now, that's an incredible thought.)

I wonder about all the storms that this tree has weathered before she was finally cut down and before she ever made it here... because that's just all part of life. I'm sure she's weathered her own seasons just as we have. And now, in this particular December of this particular year, this particular tree is going out in a blaze of lighted ornamented adorned glory (as soon as we've dressed her) doing the very thing that she was planned and purposed and planted and grown for to do............ I have to say, I love that! I'm glad that I get to share in her glory in my house if even for just a very short season.

She's not all dressed and fixed up yet. But it all honesty, she doesn't even need it. She's perfectly beautiful just as she is! If it weren't for the kids, I'd leave her that way. I did that one year. We had a tree flocked, she wore the fake snow too. But she was the prettiest tree I think I'd ever seen. She didn't need a thing... and so we didn't put anything at all on her. We let her stand in our living room just as she was. Naked. In her own splendor! We probably had more compliments on that tree than any tree we've ever had from people saying that that is the most gorgeous tree that they'd ever seen. It was. She was magnificent. Beautiful! Perfect! And every person agreed that she didn't need any human hands to dangle their human-made ornaments all over her to help improve her. So.. how could we? We didn't. :)

I know we're talking about trees here, but clouds and stars are also some of my most favorite things, I HAD TO include them here in these verses that I wanted to share. Listen to this, and as you do, picture the visual of what these verses are saying... watch the heavens, the skies, the mountains and hills and trees as they do the things that they were created for:

"the heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Day after day they [the heavens and the skies!] pour forth speech;

night after night they [the heavens and the skies!] display knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their [the heavens and the skies!] voice is not heard.

Their [the heavens and the skies!] voice goes out into all the earth,

their [the heavens and the skies!] words to the ends of the world."

(Ps 19:1-4)

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills will burst in song before you,

and ALL THE TREES OF THE LAND WILL CLAP THEIR HANDS."

(Isa 55:12)

I love that! I love how all of the created things that the Creator created were meant to praise Him. I LOVE that all of His creation does! And boy, do we ever have a tree that praises the LORD and claps her hands for Him in my house tonight! May I be one that claps her hands, too, in the awe of our God and our Redeemer along with the trees that He's created!

Amazing to think of it! But I wonder at how many trees are "clapping" their limbs around the world in homes tonight? And not only that, that are clapping their hands on the mountains and hills because they were made to clap! Woe! I hope you are clapping your hands, as well, over the wonder of God along with them! :)