Every year at Christmas we go out and find a real tree to decorate for the holidays. We look for one with good height and normally grab one that is wrapped up in twine to come home surprised about it's shape. We let it set for hours to give it time to unfold it beautiful limbs before we start placing lights and the zillion ornaments that I have collected over the years.
I totally expect imperfections and work with it and appreciate the trees uniqueness. The large gaping hole in the side can be camouflaged or the whole tree can be turned! The longer limbs can be trimmed and the top as well. The sap is sticky but the smell is amazing! Oh and don't forget to water it because the dog loves tree water!
With the fake tree we bought this year; it was so easy to take it out of the box and before you know it...it was up. Weighing only a few pounds it is so easy to move and turn. It is totally symmetrical and perfect that as I started fluffing up the moveable limbs I realized that it can be quite exasperating! The perfection was a problem as I found myself fluffing the left side to match the right and actually went to bed that night without decorating it! The next day I continued adjusting the very pliable limbs to the extent of three days! Crazy? Yes! Artificial trees are not good for OCD people! Sure the lights are already on but despite that I sat back and found my experience lacking. What was it about this tree that was so frustrating to me? My whole life I have had real and despite the overwhelming call for this fake convenience...I was regretting my purchase!
I think that first of all there is no substitute for the REAL thing. You can try your best to replace it and act like you have the original but in the end...it's just a fake reproduction of something that you would rather have. What do you have that is fake in your life?
Sometimes being real can be messy and can leave you exposed and quite vulnerable to criticism and to the opinions of others. But being your authentic self is an extroidinary and beautiful thing not only to you but to God. He made us to be lights to the world and nothing can replicate the value and healing powers of natural light. Don't be tempted to live a lie and act like something you are not. What you end up doing can be compared to the mess of untangling a long string of Christmas lights....It's disasterous and brings frustration!!
Be real even through the good, bad or the ugly because you are the living, breathing testimony to somebody. Someone out there needs to see the gaps, the impefections and sticky messes you get yourself in so that they can have hope that they can make it in this life too!
Adjust that Crown!
Jonna
