WOOD AND CHRISTMAS

_{Thanks are due to Pastor Victor Peterson of The Ridgewood United Church, Ridgewood NJ, for this meditation.}

_{Wood and  Christmas?  Strange, right?  But the story is strange and many layered.}

_{I've always loved wood.  My Grandfather Judd, besides being a teacher in a one-room school of grades one through 12 in Pennsylvania, was a carpenter.  My first full sentence, they say, was "Grandpa down celler sawing."  I remember the smell of the sawdust, the sheer delight of the feel of polished wood. In my childhood treasure box I carried a small block of cedar from Grandpa's shop.}

_{In my house there are handed down wooden kitchen tools, handmade:  rolling pins, spoons, dough and salad bowls.  Cedar chests, farm chairs, cabinets, endtables, picture frames, blanket boxes, antique church pews, hall trees, dining tables.  The varieties of wood are predominately Oak, some Chestnut, Hickory, Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Curly Maple, Rosewood, Boxwood, Pine, Cedar, Ash. All  made into useful things, hand rubbed, and polished for generations. And in the fireplace burned wood remnants- before which for generations we sat by the hearth, warmed with cheer of friends and family.}

_{Christmas. An old story.  Yeah, yeah.  Heard that before.  So don't we have to polish the story to new brilliance?  Think on the words, the Word, the Logos of the story.  Ark, Temple, Manger, Stable, Shepherd Staff, Wine barrels, Wine goblets, Fire, Crown of Thorns, Cross.  The Old Rugged Cross.  Remember that hymn?  So as we set up and decorate the tree that was sacrificed for our good pleasure we must polish the Christmas Story.  It is part of our cultural and spiritual landscape.  Ignore it or not. Send it forth anew, burnished to new brightness and meaning.  Like wood.}

Exodus 15:25

²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.