What Tree Are You Decorating This Christmas?

Jesus hung on a cross between two criminals.  There was a cross on each side of Him.  One cross held a man who was broken and repentant.  The other cross held a man who was defiant and absorbed in self survival.  It seems God, in the final throes of His Son's life, gave us a picture of what He was trying to do.  He did it by first showing us in graphic detail:  the problem.  All men are lost.  That is not my conclusion but God's.  In fact, God calls us "dead in our sins".  The problem is they don't know it.  And even when they discover it they don't really understand what to do about it.  They feel it.  They normally respond as the man on the cross of defiance and self-absorption because they want to be free and saved in the only way they can imagine it.  But the picture of the cross of Jesus shows us also: the answer.  It shows a man re-posturing his heart to recognize his need of someone to save him from the inside out.  The man on one side of Jesus wanted to continue to live his life the same if he was saved from the cross.  The man on the other side was done with his life and asked Jesus for another life with Him somewhere in a place with Him.  Jesus told us to take up our crosses and follow Him.  Sometimes crosses were called "trees" in Scripture.  If all of us have a "tree" to bear, then what are we decorating that tree with.  Is it a tree decorated with defiant, self survival prayers of asking God to save us and get us out of the problems of life so we can continue on indifferent to Him. Or are we putting on our tree a heart postured with brokenness and repentance?  A heart that says to Him, "we are receiving what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong," seems to go a lot further in getting His attention.