"Elroy, stop that!!!"

Elroy was a sturdy little fir with long, bushy branches that stretched out onto the path that lead past him and into the forest beyond.  Other fir and pine had to watch out for him because in his naughty moments he would spit out huge clumps of needles should they enter his space. It didn't appear to take too much effort on his part either.  He was always thinking up ways to amuse himself...and others....but others most often didn't find his little tricks all that funny.

"Elroy, stop that!", his mother would shout sternly to him.  Elroy couldn't help himself.  He simply had to have some fun, standing there all day.  He liked to stretch.  It felt good.  Often he would stretch out so far that folks walking past would trip and fall over his lower limbs and while getting up from their fall would say all manner of words that Elroy had never heard before.  Mumbling, they would smell the aroma of fir gum which had attached itself to their pant legs and coats all the while attempting to remain somewhat dignified. 

Now and then people with big machines would come into the plantation with snippers and pruners and saws and clippers, attacking his friends's branches with abandon.  Not his though!  He wondered if it would hurt much to have his branches pruned but no one ever complained about the procedure so he figured when it came time for them to do his branches, it would all be good.  Maybe it tickled!  He would wait and see....

"Elroy, stand up straight!  You know you won't grow to be tall and strong if you don't keep your trunk straight!"

"OK, Mother." as Elroy pushed himself up high and made all kinds of sounds as his branches would squeek and slide silently up into the twinkling night sky above them.  His mother said many good and helpful things, things that would make him a stronger and better fir, so he listened intently and followed her wishes.

And Elroy grew.  The other trees around admired him.  He stretched every single day.  He grew taller than any of his brothers and sisters and his mother was proud of what he had become, a fun-loving, caring fir tree.

One night on the dark, cold plantation, he felt a chill, something he couldn't quite explain but it was something that ran through his branches, all the way to his upstretched leader.  He wanted to ask his mother what this extraordinary feeling was all about, but he didn't want to wake her.  Elroy took good care of her and each night she huddled and slept peacefully under his strong trunk.  And as she slept, he looked up to find an unusual light in the dark sky....a light so bright that he wondered what it could be.  Elroy had heard songs being sung about a special heavenly kind of light but he figured this couldn't be that kind of light....but he wondered nevertheless.  He hadn't seen one quite that bright before. And then before he could spit another needle, he heard it.  It sounded like a bunch of folks singing.  Limbs stretched up and over all the other trees in the field.  He needed to see what was going on but nothing was visible in his line of site, at least. Nothing at all.  The music continued on....he could hear the words...."Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good will to all people!"  The melodic voices blended and joined into one as Elroy rested and finally slept in a heavenly peace.

Was it a dream?  Elroy was awakened suddenly to the buzz of trucks and saws and many people hovering around him.  The sound he heard in the night was not at all like the sound he heard now.  It must have been a dream, he reasoned.  A beautiful dream too, he thought to himself.

Now he was being pruned and trimmed and he could hear his mother silently weeping beside him as the saws and snippers whirred and clipped.  She told him that this was his very special time and was being prepared for what he was destined to be.  His trunk shook...his limbs quivered....he was beginning to topple over but was caught up in a net.  "Motherrrrrrrrrrr", Elroy called out before he was wrapped and  hauled onto a truck that awaited him.  "Don't worry, Elroy.  This is what you have been waiting for, all these many years!"  She would remember Elroy's branches as a young fir, their softness, their sweet aroma and the gentleness of her dear fir son snuggling into her branches as a tiny seedling.  Mother knew where Elroy was going.  She had heard stories about a place that was being prepared for him, a place where he would wear beautiful garments, where he would be a prince, of sorts.  She also knew that when it was her time to leave the plantation, there would be a place for her as well.  She would be there too, with her son and she was excited to know that this would not be the last time she would see him.

Elroy arrived.  Many people cared for him and took great pains to see that he had enough water to satisfy his great thirst.  Then came his robes...all golden and beautifully adorned with red on his top branches.  It was a nice place, a heavenly place and he knew this was what his mother had been speaking to him about...a place of peace, and rest and beauty.

What was that???  Music!  It was the same music he had heard as a fir on the plantation that dark, starry night.  It was louder this time...much louder, and even more beautiful.  A light shone too.  At first he didn't really know what the light was.......but then, he knew. 

He knew the light was for him and the words being sung were for him...it was a party...ALL FOR HIM.

Elroy was happy.  He saw things that he had never before seen and heard music that he had never before heard.  It was hard to take it all in...but the party continued...and the words that were sung spoke about heaven and rest and this beautifully perfect place.  He would enjoy it all. And the chill that he had once felt back on the plantation on that dark, starry night swept over him again and again and it was very good.  Here, there was no darkness, only the warmth of the Light.

Elroy had reached his resting place and would wait patiently for his mother, and siblings and friends who would eventually join him.  But for now, he would simply sit, all adorned, and watch the Light and listen to the songs....songs about a Baby being born and about angels and shepherds and joy and peace.  It was a day of true celebration.

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned."  Isaiah 9:2

May your Christmas, like Elroy's,  be filled with the Light of God and the blessings of peace on earth, good will to all!!

In memory of Elroy Linton... (Twila, my friend's dad)