A tree is an appropriate metaphor for the work that we at Habitat do in partnership with families around the world. We help families to stand firm and safe in a home that they can afford, just as a tree stands firm and rooted in its soil. Like a tree, the family in its snug home grows strong and healthy, spreading its roots deep and wide in the surrounding community.When I was growing up, our extended family would gather at my grandparents’ house and trim the tree on Christmas Eve. I recall the tree as towering twelve feet high, although that is hard to reconcile with an eight-foot ceiling.
But one truly tall Christmas tree became more than a metaphor. Following last Christmas, our friends at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City donated their famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree to Habitat for Humanity. But they did more than that. They milled the 75th anniversary tree, turned it into two-by-fours and shipped it to the Gulf Coast, where it helped to frame the Pascagoula, Mississippi home of Tracey Davison and her daughters. Plans are under way to do something similar with this year’s Rockefeller tree.
This generous gesture gives us something to reflect upon as we gather with our families around our own Christmas trees this season. We are all part of a constant and unchanging effort to share the love of Christ with people in this country and around the world by helping to provide those in need with a decent place to live. Like the unchanging green of the Christmas tree, the unfailing love of Jesus Christ inspires and sustains us in the work we do at Habitat.
On behalf of the international board of directors and the entire senior leadership team at Habitat for Humanity International, I wish to thank you for all that you do in every season to help further our all-important mission. May you and your families enjoy a safe and wonderful Christmas season, and the very best in the coming year.
Blessings,
Jonathan Reckfored
CEO, Habitat for Humanity Int'l
