Dropping Needles

Growing up I always had an artificial Christmas tree.
Christmas came just two months after my husband and I were married.
That was the year I had my first real Christmas tree.
I was so excited to finally have a real tree in our apartment.

The smell of the pine needles was amazing.
The wintry smell permeated every crevice of our tiny apartment.
I had some ornaments from when I was a girl.
No glass Christmas balls, since the memory of breaking them was fresh in my mind.

It was tradition to have a real tree.
The children loved selecting just the right one.
We went to a tree farm a few times and cut down our own.
More often than not, we select a pre-cut tree from our favorite nursery.

I remember visiting one particular family growing up and seeing their live Christmas tree.
I remember the strings of popcorn and the strings of berries on the tree.
I remember the tree filling the corner of the living room.
I remember the needles.

The needles were everywhere.
They made a blanket under the tree.
When you walked from their living room to another room, the needles came too.
Maybe they forget to water the tree; my mother said when I asked her about the needles.

You never had to water an artificial tree, so that concept was foreign to me.
I imagined the cleanup when this tree was finally taken down in the New Year.
I imagined the family sweeping up the needles and throwing them away in bags.
I imagined some of the needles sticking to the socks of unsuspecting feet.

When my older son was on a soccer team in our town, I met an interesting man.
He patented a watering cane so that it would be easy to water a Christmas tree.
He said he did it out of necessity, when he saw his pregnant wife trying to water their tree.
This green plastic tube had a round cup at the top.

The bottom of the long tube was placed in the base of the Christmas Tree stand.
The cup at the top of the tube was tucked in the branches.
You simply poured water in the cup, which ran down the tube into the base.
The tree was watered and you never had to bend down to do it.

I loved my watering cane.
Sometimes the tube would be a bit crooked in the tree.
Watering the tree meant more water on the floor until the tube was straightened.
Despite those small inconveniences, the watering cane was a great invention.

I realized that it has been quite a few years since I put the watering cane in our tree.
I have been bending down with my watering can to water our tree every other day.
I have noticed that our tree is dropping a lot of needles this year.
It seems that I am vacuuming the hard wood floors after every watering.

Touch a branch and some needles fall.
Hit the bottom branches with the watering can and needles fall.
Lean behind it to light the tree or light the candle in the window, needles fall.
This year I think I understand why my mother chose to have an artificial tree.

I thought about the needles as I was vacuuming them up for the umpteenth time.
I thought about them being scattered everywhere.
I thought about them getting stuck to our socks as we went into another room.
I thought about them falling at the slightest touch or brush against the branches.

I can be annoyed or I can change my perspective.
I choose the latter.
I choose to look at this a bit differently.
What if I compared dropping needles to sprinkling Christ about during this season?

What if people brushed past me and some of Christ’s love attached to them?
What if I walked into the room and the smell of Christ was evident?
What if I watered myself with the Living Water and some of the drops splashed about?
What if I left a little bit of Christ wherever I go?

When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
(Hebrews 9:19-22)

We are a sprinkled people.
We come to the Baby in the manger who would one day go to the cross.
On that cross, He bled and died.
We come to the cross one at a time and are sprinkled with His blood.

That sprinkling, that blood covering, is what we need for total forgiveness.

My floor is sprinkled with needles.
My socks tend to have some of the needles attached.
I carry the residue of the Christmas tree wherever I go.
I carry the Christ Child wherever I go.

I will keep my live Christmas tree, needles and all.
I am beginning to appreciate the dropping needles.
I need them to remind me.