Life Evergreen

Romans 6:23; John 10:10
If you live in the temperate zones of the country you most likely are seeing evergreens more now that the deciduous trees have lost their leaves. Every year in America more than 30 million fresh-cut Christmas trees are sold.* Though I have an artificial tree now I can still remember traveling each year to a tree farm with a saw and some rope. Our family would not decide which tree to take until all the trees were examined carefully (or so it seemed). 

I'm glad for evergreens. The color adorning their branches fights off the appearance of deadness across the landscape. Life in this way reminds me of eternal life in Christ (Romans 6:23). But not only so, it also reminds me that life can thrive in this world--even in tough environments. There is great beauty in this world, but there is also evil and death. In the search for meaning in the here and now people work and play all in attempts to have the good life.


If you are a Christian there are times you need to hear these words of Jesus, "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Life for the Christian is not just about that eternal life in heaven. There is a temporal fullness to it that should be offered to a world in need. The apostle John commented at the beginning of his biography of Jesus, "In him was life, and that life was the light of men" (John 1:4) This is most significant. 


If you have life of the eternal kind in you this Christmas use it to change the landscape around you. Those who possess should bring hope and light--like the evergreen in a forest of brown leafless trees. 


Is there a way you can change the lifeless landscape you are planted in?


*Source: http://www.history.com/content/christmas/christmas-facts