Tip of My Iceberg

We had real Christmas trees for literal decades. The tradition was to go the day after Thanksgiving to our local tree providers, spend at least an hour looking at as many trees as we could, finally determining that the first or second tree we had seen would be the one we chose.

The challenge was keeping the real tree holding up as well as possible, which required watering everyday and vacuuming fallen needles constantly so we wouldn’t be aware of it slowly dying.

It was a huge decision to finally go with an artificial tree. We waited until after Christmas almost two years ago and purchased one on sale. Believing we’d gotten a great deal.

Fast forward to this year. Our first year of fake was an adventure. We were able to put up more and heavier ornaments, which we had quite a collection of, and were astounded at how fun it was to not water or vacuum.

Bonus–we left the fake tree up a lot longer than a real one would have lasted.

However, what I’d forgotten was how long it took to “fluff” the branches to restore the tree to looking somewhat real. I spent several hours, with occasional help from grands, to dive through prickly branches to make them look real. It didn’t help that I’d cut my fingers several times using a new knife the day before, and the stinky little needles found each cut consistently.

Pretending to be real can be painful.

Fake can be costly.

Isn’t that what we confront in life all the time? Authenticity is a challenge because society pushes us to be mindful of how we manage our images, seeking to always put ourselves in the best light possible.

The way we choose to appear to others isn’t necessarily who we really are. Anybody can “become” someone for a time, wearing a mask and acting in a desirable way.

Maintaining an image takes work and mindfulness. It’s easy to slip up and fall into who we are.

The prophet Samuel had been told by God to anoint the new king of Israel. He entered the home of Jesse, a man of the tribe of Judah who had eight sons. Samuel spotted the oldest son, and seeing that he was tall and good-looking made him think this was the man God had chosen.

God corrected him.

“But the Lord said to Samuel ‘Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’” 1 Samuel 16:7

What God knows about us is who we really are. Because He’s all-knowing, nobody can pull one over on Him. He sees our hearts, our thoughts, our longings, our mistakes. If we belong to Him, no matter how we show up becomes acceptable to Him. God offers grace–a goodness we don’t deserve but which He freely gives because of His love.

Our fake tree looks great–especially from a distance. The closer you get, the easier it is to see that it isn’t real.

I don’t want people to get close to me and see that I’m not all that I claim to be. I want to be seen as authentic by others–not someone trying to impress others with who I want to be.

Being real is a lot easier to sustain.