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The Chorus of Trees

December 25, 2025

Isaiah 9:2-7| Psalm 96| Titus 2:11-14|Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

“Around me the trees stir in their leaves
And call out, ‘Stay awhile.’
The light flows from their branches.”

The selection from Mary Oliver’s poem, “When I Am Among the Trees” gives us the image of a stand of trees speaking in their way to the author. There have been times when I have been walking through a forest in Rhode Island, admiring the hardwoods, watching the leaves dance in the wind and feel like they are whispering to me to slow down, to be calm, to find peace. This is the image that I usually embrace of forest experiences: calm and peace. Yet in the psalm we have a different picture of the trees as well as all creation: joy and shouting.

I have hiked in storms and have felt a sense of shouting as the winds have cut through the trees, but not with feelings of joy.

I have huddled in my tent through the night as I hear the howling of the wind and watch the fabric walls tremble. The sound is power and awe, but not so much joy.

Joy is not an emotion that I often connect with creation, and yet the psalm gives us the image of all creation expressing a radical joy. The heavens rejoice. The thunder of the sea expresses joy. The trees of the wood shout for joy. There is joy in creation.

And why not? For today is the day that we celebrate not just a birth, but a way that God breaks into creation, into the history of humanity. We celebrate the presence of God as one of us, to love us and redeem us. Why shouldn’t all creation express joy at the idea that God is active and presence that loving with all creation? Last summer I was hiking near Mt. Baker in Washington State. I was hiking through the forest, working my way to a mountain pass, when I finally climbed above tree line. I was surrounded by high mountain fields and flowers and in the distant was the range of the North Cascade mountains, reaching into the sky. In that moment I was in awe at the view and the majestic presence of the mountains. But today I see each mountain as a grand and powerful expression of joy. Each mountain is reaching up with joy in response to the birth of Christ. Each stretching of rock is an act of joy in response to the creating and sustaining love that we find in the birth.

Today I am going to join in the expression of joy. Today I am going to walk among the trees, listen to them, observe them, and then join in the singing. I am going to sing with the birds, scurry with the chipmunks and squirrels. I am going to stand tall and express my joy as the mountains do, in a deep and sustaining way that carries for generations. I will join with the heavens and the earth that Christ is born!

Jonathan Malone