A Charlie Brown Heart

I have a Charlie Brown heart. 

Every year, when I walk onto a Christmas tree lot and stand in the middle of the trees, I listen to the people around me.

- Look at this one! It'll be the biggest tree in the neighborhood!

- This'll be the prettiest tree people’ve ever seen!

- This one'll be HUGE!

But in the cold night air, under the starry sky, I'm not looking for a tree that can do something for me. 

I'm looking for what I can do for the tree. 

I'm looking for the smallest and most forgotten one. 

I pick that one to take home. 

I pick that one to put in the old, trusty stand, and wrap with strings of bright, colorful lights, and adorn with the ornaments my friends have given to me over the years and my children have made with their hands and their hearts. 

I pick that one. 

Though it’s the smallest and most forgotten one, I give it some of the biggest and most remembered parts of me. 

Yep, I have a Charlie Brown heart.

Here is the great scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Charlie Brown and Linus are on the Christmas tree lot.

Linus: Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?

Charlie Brown: This little green one here seems to need a home.

Linus: I don't know, Charlie Brown. Remember what Lucy said? This doesn't seem to fit the modern spirit.

I don't care. We'll decorate it and it'll be just right for our play. I think it needs me.

This coming year, let's treat our world the way Charlie Brown treated the little green tree. 

Let's treat people the way Charlie Brown treated the little green tree. 

Let's treat ourselves the way Charlie Brown treated the little green tree.

In the end, Linus would say - 

I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.

Maybe the world just needs a little love.

Come have a Charlie Brown heart with me.