What’s your Christmas tree preference?  Real or artificial?  Green or flocked?  I probably stumped you there.  I am most likely a little older than you and when I was a kid, green or flocked was a legitimate question.  Flocking was some kind of fluffy goo that “they” (I’m not quite sure who had the privilege) sprayed all over the tree to make it look like it had been snowed on.

My husband and I have thus far purchased only real trees.  Every Thanksgiving weekend we go out and pick our quirky little tree and set it up with food and water in its container.  We start off so strong—checking the water level daily and refilling it so that the tree keeps drinking.  But somewhere during the festivities and stress of the holidays, our tree gets a little neglected.  This year was particularly bad.  By the time I got around to disrobing it of its beautiful ornaments, the tree was turning brown, and if a tree could scream, it would have yelled, “I’m parched!” at me.  The limbs were wilting, with some having already drooped so low that many of the ornaments had already slid off onto the tree skirt. Let’s just say the January version of our Christmas tree was not candy for the eyes, nor did it serve well to hold up our lovely ornaments.  The tree was in such pitiful shape that I had to perform the walk of shame as I carried the thing out to the corner of the driveway to await the garbage men.

I was struck by how often my life mirrors the plight of my Christmas tree. Just last week, I realized that my heart was dead on the vine.  I was no wellspring of living water, but rather a dried up well that should contain water, but didn’t.  You see, when I am living dependent on my creator, He keeps me overflowing by His grace. However, when I get busy, and a little independent, my waters begin drying up.

The Bible tells us exactly what we need to do to keep our tree from shriveling:

¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
       he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
       and will strengthen your frame.
       You will be like a well-watered garden,
       like a spring whose waters never fail.  Isaiah 58:11

If we stop trying to desperately meet our own needs, if we cry out to God and ask him to be God, guess what?  That’s exactly what He does.  He longs to show us His glory and His power to be our complete provision.  All we need to do is realize our inability to water ourselves and rest and trust in His promise to strengthen our frame and transform us from a desiccated, desperate, almost dead tree into a well-watered garden “whose waters never fail” because they flow into us from the Lord.

Let me leave you with a little something that I read in a book by John Piper:

“We, not He, are starving for something.  And what Jesus wants is for us to experience what we were really made for—seeing and savoring His glory.”

Go be filled, my friends!