By Brooke Cox
Growing up, one of my favorite activities was decorating Christmas trees. Even as an adult, I often volunteer to adorn them. You see, I love anything that sparkles and/or has a bright color.
Many years ago, I worked in a very nice and professional office. My first Christmas there, the company bought a new Christmas tree. The manager asked me if I wouldn’t mind decorating it. While I calmly agreed, I was jumping for joy on the inside. Whoo hoo!
He said the decorations would be in the office by the next morning. So, I bounced into the office the next morning expecting to see vivid colors and sparkle. Also, I hoped there would be shiny icicles. To my surprise, nothing was sparkling. At all. One of the decorations had some glitter and that was it.
The decorations fit in with the room décor. There wasn’t a Christmas thing about them. For the first time that I could remember, I adorned a tree without really enjoying it. To honest, that was a struggle.
One of my coworkers noticed and came over to help. Then I came across a couple spools of ribbon for the tree. I had never, ever placed a ribbon on a Christmas tree. Now don’t misunderstand, I have seen ribbon enhance the beauty of a tree, but I didn’t have a clue on how to do it. Neither did my coworker, so we left it off.
To make matters worse, another coworker was critiquing our decorating skills from her desk. “Those two are way too close together.” “You need to balance out this side of the tree.” “Put the small ones at the top.” Finally, the first coworker had had enough and she said, “Then you come over here and do a better job.”
And join us she did. Soon we three were finished adorning the tree. I thought it looked pretty good considering what we had to work with. My coworkers agreed and we left work that afternoon feeling somewhat accomplished.
We had quite the surprise when we arrived in the office the next morning. The tree had been completely redone and it had the ribbon wrapped around it. Chances were this wasn’t a Christmas miracle, so we called the manager. After we left, he had stopped to look at it. Not liking what he saw, had a professional interior designer come by and redecorate it.
“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” Colossians 3:23 (KJV)
Attitude is everything. I think we did such a poor job on that tree since our hearts weren’t in it. Things weren’t as we wanted or expected. But God doesn’t say that things must be the way we want them. He says to work at something with all of our hearts as if we are doing it for Him. Wow. That attitude could make such a positive difference on others.
After we got over the shock of the redecorated tree, we took pictures of it so we could do the same next year. Unfortunately, we never even came close to how the tree had been decorated that first year. We finally gave up and did the best we could. But you know what, the customers always loved it.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.