When I was growing up some of the most memorable Christmases were the ones our family spent at my maternal grandparent's home in Willoughby, Ohio. There my grandparents had built a fine home on nine acres that included meadows, an orchard, a stand of maple trees (with a maple sugar shack!) a large garden, sheds full of interesting things and even a merry-go-round! It was an ideal place for a grandchild to visit.
While both were born American citizens, my grandmother was an ethnic German and my grandfather an ethnic Brit. So a firm tradition in the family was to set up a "Tannenbaum" or "Christmas tree". There was a stand of pines near the front of the property where my grandfather would cut one of suitable size each year and my grandmother would decorate it with tinsel (some of it real antique tin!) and ornaments (some antique hand blown glass) that had been passed down in the family for generations. There were even pictures in the family photo album of such trees lit up with wax candles ablaze with real (very dangerous) flames! As a child I was excited to awake on Christmas morning to find a huge pile of presents stashed under the tree like an offering, and search through the pile for those with my name on it. My mother told us stories about large family gatherings in her childhood where an uncle would dress like Santa Claus and visit the home with a sack of presents. Grandma would prepare a bountiful Christmas dinner for all. She called this "killing the fatted calf." Those were happy memories for me.
In 1975, the year after my grandfather died of cancer, we were visiting my grandmother at the beautiful house in Ohio. There was a fresh snowfall on the ground and the scene was set for another traditional family Christmas. My grandmother handed me a bow saw and asked me to go outside and cut a tree like my grandfather did, then bring it back to the house. In the pine grove I found a tree of suitable size had grown from the stump of a tree my grandfather had cut years before. I felt bad about harming this particular tree twice, but all the others were far too large. So, I cut it and dragged it back to the house. I helped my grandmother set it up and decorate it. However my heart was heavy with the recent loss of my grandfather. Generally the mood in the household was not as festive as it had been in past years.
In 1978 I gave my life to God and chose Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. It was then that I began attending church regularly and studying the scriptures. I lacked a formal study plan, so I just started in Genesis and read through to the end, like I would any other book. As I read through the Old Testament, I came across numerous passages condemning idolatry, in particular Asherah worship. Later I went back and educated myself more thoroughly on the ancient subject of tree worship that was new to me. One passage that was particularly impressed on me was II Kings chapter 21.
"Manasseh Reigns in Judah
"Manasseh was a son of twelve years when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty five years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother was Hephzibah. And he did the evil in the eyes of Jehovah, according to the idolatries of the nations that Jehovah expelled from before the sons of Israel. And he built again the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and raised up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab the king of Israel, and worshiped all the host of the heavens, and served them. And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, of which Jehovah had said, In Jerusalem I will put My name. And he built altars for all the host of the heavens in the two courts of Jehovah's house. And he made his son to pass through the fire, used magic, and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spirit-knowers. He expanded to work the evil in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger. And he set a graven image of the Asherah that he had made in the house of which Jehovah had said to David and to his son Solomon, In this house, and in Jerusalem, that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever. And I will not again make the feet of Israel wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they observe to do all that I commanded them, and to all the Law that My servant Moses commanded them. But they did not listen, and Manasseh caused them to be led astray above the nations that Jehovah had destroyed from before the sons of Israel.
"Manasseh's Idolatry Denounced
"And Jehovah spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh the king of Judah has done these abominations, doing more wickedly than all that the Amorites did before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore so says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing evil on Jerusalem and Judah, so that whoever hears of it, his two ears shall tingle. And I will stretch out over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and shall wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish (he wipes and turns it on its face). And I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance, and give them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall be for a prey and for a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My eyes, and have provoked Me to anger from the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day. And also Manasseh has shed very much innocent blood, till he has filled Jerusalem from mouth to mouth; apart from his sin that he caused Judah to sin, to do evil in the eyes of Jehovah. And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the Book of the Matters of the Days of the Kings of Judah?" II Kings 21:1-17 ESV
It was through this self study and prayer for wisdom that I connected the family tradition of the Tanenbaum with Asherah worship. Webster's Dictionary defines it as: "Definition of Asherah: a sacred wooden post, pole, or pillar that stood near the altar in various Canaanite high places and that symbolized the goddess Asherah." (1)When I realized the potential catastrophic consequences for having a "Christmas tree", I repented for what I and my family had been doing for generations and decided never to do it again. I researched the subject to be better informed and able to give an answer for my decision and warn others.
One salient fact I learned was that the Tannenbaum comes from a Teutonic pagan tradition that was introduced to the British by the house of Windsor. Some sources credit Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, with introducing the Christmas tree into England in 1840. However, it was more likely Queen Charlotte, the German Lutheran wife of George III, who set up the first known English "Christmas tree" at Queen’s Lodge at Windsor in 1800.
Over the years I have met with stiff opposition and strident criticism for refusing to have an Asherah in my home, especially from immediate family. The debate about "Christmas trees" still sputters along in social media without any major players taking a firm stance against it. I still wonder why nothing overtly catastrophic has apparently happened to our family over the generations of those who did have Christmas trees in their homes. I also have wondered why my particular household has suffered an unusual level of hardships disproportionate relative to those other families I knew, despite being faithful to God's Word.
I know in my heart of hearts that God is always right and the Scriptures are true. So, I conclude that my relative hardships are attacks from the devil to make me give up on matters of faith. His strategy is obviously to make me commit greater sins so I will be exposed to worse attacks from him. God is also allowing me to be tested so, when I have passed the tests, He can bless me with greater rewards. For a catastrophe is not always when obvious bad things happen. It is also when great opportunities are missed too.(Luke 19:44) These things only make me more confirmed in the decision I have made and kept for over 40 years. I believe God has a vast and lasting reward for my faithfulness, and I do not want to miss that for myself or my posterity.
In particular I hope for a promise from God like that in the book of Jeremiah, "...Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not have a man cut off from standing before Me all the days." Jeremiah 35:19b ESV
How about you reader? What is more important to you? Continuing a pleasant but questionable family tradition, or honoring God and receiving a divine reward for that from Him?
(1) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Asherah
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