Today, I helped my parents decorate the Family Christmas Tree. We used every ornament, every bit of tinsel, and every strand of fake pearls we could find. It was great.

Some of those ornaments are almost as old as I am. Some are basically me scribbling on a styrofoam cup under the close supervision of my kintergarden teacher.

Every ornament brings back memories. Some are of the people who gave us the ornament. Some are of the timeframe of the creation of the ornament.

Some are looking a bit old and ratty. Yet somehow when they’re all on that tree, they end up looking beautiful. Maybe that’s a perfect picture of Christ’s Church. Individually, many of us aren’t much to look at, but together we make God visible to the world.

So I’ll take that Family Christmas Tree over any fancy decorated tree in any upscale department store. It holds a lot of my best memories.