An Unexpected Blessing

Read: Isaiah 35:1-2

The year that my family moved to California, we had a "Christmas tumbleweed" instead of a Christmas tree. There had been so much change in our lives already that year-Pennsylvania to California, new jobs, new schools, college for me-and now this! Why couldn't our Christmas at least have stayed the same??

Oh, the tumbleweed was actually very pretty...it had been sprayed and there were a few delicate ornaments hanging on it. It just wasn't a tree!

What our tumbleweed did, however, was to cause us to stop and think about that which is most important. If we didn't have a tree, we still did have our family there. And there was certainly no change in our plans to give gifts, attend church and worship Christ as the reason for the season, just as we always had. Somehow, the tumbleweed helped us appreciate the value of all that we still had, in the midst of so many changes.

Now, as I reflect on that Christmas, I realize we had more than any of us realized at that time. With its paint and adornments, the tumbleweed had come out of its dried-state death to a new kind of life as a Christmas "tree." Yes, we had the total message of Christ with us that year, a reminder of not only the birth of Jesus Christ but of all that Christ gave us in the resurrection and gift of life that followed.

The message was just packaged in the form of a tumbleweed.

Our tumbleweed was an unexpected Christmas blessing that continues to be, in our memories.

Prayer: Oh God, as we reflect on the memories of our past, help us to see you and the birth of our Savior more clearly. Help us to better understand the changes life brings and to see the gifts that you give us in the midst of those changes. May we know you ever more deeply as we experience your unexpected blessings. Amen.

-- Carol Mumford