In preparing my message for the Second Sunday in Advent (Dec. 5, 2010) on the Old Testament text from Isaiah 11:1-10 on the prophecy about the “Shoot from the stump of Jesse,” I came across a great passage in Job I have never seen before. In Job 14:7 it talks about how man is worse off than a tree which when it is cut down and is “dead” can at least come back to life when a shoot comes from its stump. In Job’s comparison, mankind is more like a flower, which is short-lived (Job 14:2). Job is saying that man would have hope of a resurrection if he were more like a tree.
Maybe Isaiah had this in mind when he proclaimed that the Messiah would be the shoot from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1)! Jesus would be both man (susceptible to death, like a short-lived flower) and God (like the tree that doesn’t die even when cut down). Mankind’s hope lies in this God-man who brings new life to all who are grafted into Him (Rom 11:17!). I love this tree metaphor, which continues in Scripture by saying that God’s people will become and be “called oaks of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3) because of the cleansing of the Messiah! 
Here’s to all you “Christian Trees” or real “Christmas Trees” out there!