What the Trees Teach Us at Christmas: A Christmas Reflection

The Christmas season is a time when we are close to trees. 

This feels a bit paradoxical, however, because the reason that there may be a tree in our living rooms, whether the tree is natural or artificial, is that it had to be chopped down. And yet it's the time of the year when nature is close to us, because we’ve drawn near to this tree by bringing it inside our house. Not for shade. Not for lumber. But because this tree has become a spiritual symbol for us in the Christmas season of a saviour who dwelled and dwells with us. 

This year, I’ve been thinking about those other trees that aren’t in our living rooms and have been chopped down for more utilitarian reasons. I’ve been thinking about how 90% of forest in the United States was chopped down between the 17th and 20th centuries–a loss we may never replace and may never ecologically and spiritually recover from. 

Even though it’s the heart of winter, I’m thinking about the trees that provide shade in the summer, and the unshaded places longing for trees that have been chopped down. I’m thinking of concrete-lined neighborhoods where asthma rates are high and tree canopy is low and the nearest tree is indeed in the living room. 

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. ~ Isaiah 11:1

The prophecy in Isaiah 11 illustrates a tree that has been chopped down, but despite this apparent destruction, life would one day begin to emerge. 

A small shoot would come out of this lineage and legacy that is seemingly in shambles, and from these same roots, a branch would emerge, likely providing shade, as well as fruit. 

In 2025, there has been a lot of destruction to bear witness and attend to. ​

Christmas is a reminder that God is familiar and particularly adept with bringing forth life and hope out of destruction.

And like our trees, paradoxically chopped down by our own hands, God brings forth hope through an embodied closeness to us, despite the ways we’ve collectively missed the mark.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ~ Romans 8:22

Christmas is a celebration of the birth of a baby who personified a young shoot emerging out of a felled tree. 

Perhaps thousands of years before major deforestation would occur, Christ’s birth is about being a tree with us, God with us, a destroyed forest with us. Using our ecological imaginations, we might find Jesus in solidarity with the felled trees, each felled tree a symbol of His eventual crucifixion.  And even more so we find Jesus in solidarity with the children born into unshaded neighborhoods–a shoot of hope growing out of areas with stumps. 

The prophecy reminds us that liberation begins with small sprouts. Jesus did not incarnate as a 33-year-old. Likewise, our work for the liberation of God’s planet and people begins with small, hopeful actions. We can’t re-plant all that’s been lost in one day, but we can start by planting a tree. Or by seeding hope. 

May the eternal story of new life emerging out of dead ends give us hope, strength, and resilience for the work ahead.

Kat Gonzales
Faithful Resilience Program Director
Creation Justice Ministries

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