Christmas Trees
Dec 31
We all love seeing decorated Christmas trees, no matter how big or small, inside or outside our homes, inside churches or outside in public squares. This annual tradition can be traced back to the 700s when Monk St. Boniface in Germany wanted to find a symbol for the Christ Child. He also hoped to try and stop the people from worshipping the oak tree which he quickly cut down before they sacrificed a baby to the god Thor. He chose a fir tree and declared that it would be the “the tree of the Christ Child.” Down through the centuries it became a popular custom to be part of Christmas celebrations in many places around the world. I can’t believe that in the 16th century people began decorating the trees with lighted candles. It was good that Edward Johnson vice-president of the Edison Electric company came along in 1882 to create the first known Christmas tree lit by electricity. A star was often placed on the top to remind everyone of the star of Bethlehem. Then in the 19th century artificial trees were produced from goose feathers dyed green. Interesting! I agree with Gary that we miss the pleasant smell of a real tree because we have an artificial one.
A few years ago, I began a new tradition by collecting church ornaments to decorate our little tree sitting in the window in our living-room. We have purchased quite a few in our periodic travels from one place or another including one from Niagara-on-the-Lake a couple of weeks ago. It reminds us of how important the church is and its belief in the birth of Jesus Christ.
Since 2017 some of us have been trying to establish Hillside Church in Milton to get that message out to various neighbourhoods. Sadly, we have hit several roadblocks along our journey with 2020 becoming the biggest challenge of all when COVID raised its ugly head worldwide in late winter. East Side Marios, where we were holding our Sunday morning services, was closed. We streamed the services from our home studio in Brampton. Then this past fall we started meeting at Ned Devine’s Restaurant on Sundays. It has been the best location, but it too was closed for public dining last Sunday due to the increase of COVID. And we were just getting our broadcasting technology working – facebook.com/hillsidechurchmilton/live! A few days before Christmas about 80 packages including a Bible, Gary’s The John Challenge book, some candy and a church letter were delivered to a neighbourhood near the restaurant. Only one lady has responded to our gifts by saying she didn’t want to take the Bible into her home. There seems to be a story there, wouldn’t you think! We have about 80 additional packages to deliver but more copies of The John Challenge won’t arrive until January 6. We are back to streaming our Sunday services from our studio until it is safe again to meet together in person as a church.
Our beautiful Christmas trees can help us remember to be thankful to God for sending us His Son; but as 2021 approaches, we will be taking down those trees. We would really appreciate your prayers for us to continue being thankful for what He has done for us and be able to cope with any new obstacles that come our way regarding Hillside’s future.
Blessings for the New Year,
Wendy