Yesterday we bought our Christmas tree.
We drove to the farm and walked along the rows and rows of trees, discussing their size and shape, imagining their place in our living room.
Some were recently planted, others recently cut down.

Trees tell a story.
Years of abundance and years of stress –
stretching and straining for sunlight,
forming firm foundations,
– growing slowly, but purposefully.

In the endless scrolling the other day, this quote from Life Anglican Church caught my attention:
"The kind of people Jesus came from 

are the kind of people Jesus came for."

The faithful and the faithless;
the weak and the strong;

the successful and the failures;
the foolish and the wise;

the young and the old;

the cheaters, liars and thieves;

the dreamers, lovers and kings.

We don't know the story of everyone in Jesus' family tree (you can check out the names in the first chapter of Matthew) but God knows their story.
He knows their hearts.

He came for people like them.
People like us.

So let your Christmas tree remind you of the family tree, littered with success and failure,
covered in stories of grace and mercy,

joy and despair,

confusion, longing and hope.