Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The Scriptures will be embedded in the story.

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs discovered Sinterklaas.

This week, Babs took the SUV.  She returned with boxes from her storage unit and one huge box from the hardware store.  She had bought a very large artificial Christmas Tree.  What she had brought from her storage room were boxes of Christmas decorations.  I learned later that her birth mother, who she hardly knew due to dying when she was young, was really into Christmas.  Her father had thrown away everything except for the Christmas decorations.  Years later, after marrying a stripper so that Babs had a mother figure (a horrible one), Babs kept him from throwing away everything from her mother.  She had a tattered photograph from her mother’s wedding and the Christmas decorations.

Even though Babs had her own apartment upstairs, she set up the tree in the living room.  She had help.  Joe Painter came up from his house and Babs had picked up Jayke and Janella, Willie’s two children.  The four of them were singing Christmas songs, mostly songs, not hymns or carols.  It is amazing to listen to Babs sing songs about a holiday that she rarely ever celebrated.  I didn’t know all the words to some of those silly songs.  And when they weren’t singing, they were playing Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music or Bing Crosby or Elvis.

I could not concentrate on what Mary Sheltie Jones wanted me to do.  I went to the living room and sat in a comfy chair in the corner to watch.

Janella came up to me.  “Pake, we sang White Christmas and Blue Christmas.  We want you to sing Purple Christmas!”

I frowned, “Janella, I don’t think there is a Purple Christmas.”

Janella said, “Grabbabs sings it!”

Babs scrunched her nose, “It’s an AI generated song, but it’s about a tribute to mothers in Heaven.”

Babs then sung the song.  I knew Babs’ mother had died when she was very young.  Tears were forming in her eyes as she sang the song.

Janella came back over and said, “Pake, everything in these two boxes of Christmas decorations is all Grabbabs has to remember her mommy.  Please, help us decorate the tree.”

We had a great time using all the decorations.  What did not fit on the Christmas Tree was used to decorate the end tables, and some trimming the curtains.

Babs smiled, “I think Jayke has a question.”

Jayke said, “When did Christmas trees get started?”

I laughed, “A long time ago, Jayke.  I guess you can thank the Latvians.  Not the community south of town, but their ancestors in Latvia.  In 1510, the merchants decorated a tree with artificial roses.  I am not sure when, but the Eastern Orthodox faith linked the Burning Bush that Moses saw with the Virgin Mary.  I have no idea when that started or how it fits together, but they had this decorated tree in the town square, and they set the tree on fire and burned it.”

Jayke asked, “Is that why the Latvians have their Christmas Tree bonfire after Christmas each year?”

I nodded, “I think that’s why.  But then there is a record that merchants in Germany were selling undecorated trees as early as 1531.  It seems there is a legend that Martin Luther, who founded the Lutheran church, saw stars twinkling in the gaps between limbs of a fir tree.  So, he tried to recreate that beautiful sight by putting candles on an evergreen tree.  Now, we use electric lights.  Candles on a tree that is quickly drying out can be a fire hazard.”  Jayke nodded eagerly, as if he understood, and since he was getting older, maybe he did understand.

I continued, “But Christmas Eve was the day when the villages would put on a Paradise Play in the Middle Ages, even earlier than the times of Martin Luther.  In the story of Adam and Eve, they would have an evergreen tree, or since this was a play, it might be limbs from an evergreen tree.  They would have apples tied to the limbs.  This represented the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  And what happened?”

Jayke gasped, “That’s the tree that God said not to eat, but Adam and Eve ate the fruit, and they got kicked out of the Garden.”

I nodded, “Very good, Jayke.  And all the people in the world since Adam and Eve are born with a sin nature.  We need to give our lives over to Jesus to make things right.”

Babs asked, “Is that why the Christmas colors are red and green?  Red apples on an evergreen tree?”

I shrugged, “That’s where the green comes in, the evergreen trees, but instead of focusing on a red apple that represents our sin, we focus on the blood of Christ on the cross that washes away our sin.  That is the traditional meaning of the red and green.  But who decided on those colors is a little muddy.  The Celts revered the holly bush, with its red and green.  The Christian tradition is the easiest to identify, but no one at that time claimed it.”

Babs asked, “The red being the blood of Christ – There are a lot of verses about that, but how does evergreen trees become something that relates to Christmas?”

I shrugged, “Hosea 14:8 says ‘Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a flourishing juniper; your fruitfulness comes from me.’  That is the NIV.  Many translations say green fir tree, others say cypress.  But regardless of what type of evergreen, this verse speaks to the nature or attributes of God.  The plant is an evergreen and whatever is fruitful, at least good fruit, comes from God.”

Joe ran over to sit on the floor near Babs.  Joe said, “Goodie, Pake is going to teach us something about God.”  Jayke and Janella walked over and sat next to Joe.  Babs decided to sit on the floor in the middle of the children.  Janella crawled into her lap, and the two boys sat on either side.  This felt like Jesus and the children coming to Him.  I wanted to get on the floor to see them at eye level, but I was afraid I would have problems getting back up.

I sighed, “Okay, Isaiah 55:13 says that instead of thornbushes and other nasty plants, the desert will grow good trees, like juniper and myrtle.  ‘Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”’  Myrtle seems to be easily translated, but translations vary with the juniper, using pine, fir, and cypress instead of juniper.  But this is a prophecy at the end of a chapter where God is talking about the water that will come to dry land.  Other places in the Bible, it talks about how the land between Israel and Egypt will become like a jungle during the End Times.  This chapter does not state living water, as in Jesus the living water, but it is a lot like that.  So, this Scripture points to Jesus at a roundabout way.”

Joe asked, “What else does the evergreen tree represent?”

I smiled, “We can see what the psalms say.  What about Psalm 92?  In verse 12 and 13, it says ‘The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.’  So, this time, the tree is not a metaphor to explain God.  This is saying that the righteous person will flourish like an evergreen tree that is planted in the house of God.  Cedar trees do not grow extremely tall, but the cedars of Lebanon were huge trees.  They were used to build Solomon’s temple.”

Babs said, “And cedar smells so good.  Can you imagine walking through God’s temple and the walls smell beautiful?”

Jayke asked, “Did they have bathrooms in the temple?  That doesn’t smell so good sometimes.”

I laughed, “I had not thought of that Jayke.  I am thinking they did their business somewhere else.  But in Psalm 1:3, we again see a tree planted by water. ‘That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.’  This person is someone who does not do what the wicked do.  So, the opposite of the wicked are the righteous.  We do not see Jesus directly, but we all sin, so we cannot be perfectly righteous.”

Janella said, “Jesus.”

I laughed, “Right you are, Janella.  Jesus is righteous.  He is the only one without sin.  So, there you have it.  The Christmas colors, red and green, can represent the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but those colors can represent Jesus, and we celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas.”

Willie was leaning against the doorframe.  She clapped.  “I came here to pick up the children and maybe help decorate.  Pake has been grumpy in past years.”

I moaned, “No, Willie, I was a traveling salesman.  I was only home for a short time.  If I did not take the decorations down on Christmas day, they might still be up at Easter.  With your mother gone, I just did not have the energy with only me in the house.”

Babs added, “And when Harold found out that the decorations were all that I have to remind me of my mother, he helped.”

Willie gasped, “Children, no running around in the living room, and do not bring Sugar in here off the leash.  I would not wish anything to happen to these treasures from the past.”

Babs scrunched her nose. “I had not thought of that.  But I would think that my mother would want the decorations to be used rather than stored in a box where no one can see them.”

Tony Painter came in from the basement.  “When I came into the garage, Sugar was excited to see me.  I gave her water and food.  You’ll need to walk her soon.  But I came up for Joe.  We better go home and get you in the shower.  Your girlfriend, Grace is going to be St. Lucia tomorrow.  She’s going to have a crown of lit candles on her head.  We are not going to miss that, and you better smell nice.

Willie laughed, “I would not want to miss that either.  Is that at Lily the Pink?”  Joe and Tony nodded.  Willie smiled, “Pink Lady tries to incorporate traditions from the various people in her complex.  She is a very loving woman, but sadly, the children and I will be busy tomorrow.”

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

When I got the idea about a joke – White Christmas, Blue Christmas, Purple Christmas – I checked to see about whether Purple Christmas existed.  I found the following youtube.  It is from Generated Harmony.  By what I have found, you send them the tune and they create the harmony, making it a full style arrangement.  But there is no idea in what I found as to the originator of the tune.  It is entitled, Purple Christmas: A tribute to Our Mothers in Heaven.

But the God thing in all this is that I wrote the backstory for Babs a year ago and this Youtube has been up about a month. I had Babs putting up the tree and using her birth mother’s ornaments. And I would have never found the song remembering mothers in Heaven if my brain had not thought of a joke about songs relating to different colors at Christmas. When I found this video and how it related to the backstory of Babs, it completely laid out the story before me. I love it when God seems to write the story.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.