The First Christmas Tree

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE We often talk of Christmas trees and decorate them well, But there’s a story true and old that to you now I tell. Long, long ago there was a tree, majestic, tall, and green, Throughout the forest all around the best to e’er be seen. It was cut down then to be used by cruel, heartless men Who hated one who came to earth and said, “Crucify Him!” So decorated it was not with tinsel, balls, or lights; Instead it held this beaten man, a bloody, awful sight. It stood there in the rocky ground upon a skull-shaped hill, Then suddenly the sky grew dark and all was very still. Like a deep cave without a light the sky was overcast, Then a loud cry was heard in it, that cry was that man’s last. The words he spoke into the night--”It’s finished,” He had said-- Were uttered with triumphant sound, and then the man was dead. What meant that simple, final cry that came there from that tree? I’m here to tell you that I know, for He spoke it to me. He told me why that tree was raised and decorated so: It was because He loved us and that’s where He had to go To buy our souls from sin’s despair and certain, final doom, And then to raise up from the dead to come back for us soon. Now all we have to do is say, “Lord, You did that for me, I trust You and I love You so for dying on that tree.” We do not have to decorate that tree with works so fine, Religion, rituals, finances, or trying to be kind. We only have to come by faith; the work has all been done By God the Father on that tree where He gave us His Son. So as you place your Christmas tree and decorate it so, Remember that first Christmas tree so very long ago. And if you know you’ve never come by faith unto that tree, Then trust in Jesus here today and have salvation free.