The Christmas tree was always an important part of my family’s holiday celebrations. We’d head out to a tree farm, choose and cut down the perfect one, and bring it home for decorating. We all took part in the process, while Christmas carols played in the background.

But out in the field we left behind a stump, never thinking of Isaiah’s word picture of a stump as “the holy seed.” The prophet Isaiah told of a shoot that would come up from the stump of Jesse, and that “from his roots a Branch will bear fruit” (11:1). That Branch growing out of a stump is, of course, Jesus who brings beauty and life through death.

It was a sad day when the now dried-up Christmas tree was taken down and tossed out. We might say that Jesus is the original Christmas tree, the branch who grew up from the line of David, just a tender shoot at first, and then later crucified on a tree at Calvary for you and me. There was sadness before Jesus’ resurrection, but the pure joy of His victory over sin and death are cause for our greatest celebrations!