But it was never a Christian symbol anyway, right?
Jeremiah 10
1 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
How about the Ten Commandments?
Oh puleeeesseee! Do you wear clothes woven from two separate types of thread???
Do you follow Mosaic dietary laws??
Yeah, you’re no fun, because you aren’t a slave to vanity.
My wife and I dropped the habit 35 yrs ago, when we were shown that passage. It was so easy! And we found it only made life easier. We are blessed.
You should have included verses 5 and 6, because the vanity is further exposed:
“They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.”
So, no, I’m certainly not afraid of it. (Unless it burns down a house with people in it, which is just tragic.)
It doesn’t represent God; because “there is none like unto thee, O LORD...”.
We find great joy in what the Lord has done for us, and keep it simple. The tree can’t witness what the Lord has done for us, and can’t help the sick and afflicted get better. If it could, it would be left up all year.
When my wife was growing up, she had a neighbor with a fake tree, full of decorations, that he would carefully put in the attic without taking anything off, and cover it up until next year. (Also, he happened to be a horrible father and husband.)