Today many people completely miss the point of Christmas.  Endless festivities and parties – we shop, we cook, we sing songs, we exchange gifts, we get frustrated, we lose our tempers.  Sometimes it’s easy to forget the One we are celebrating!  Christmas has been hijacked by culture and emptied of its meaning.  People have become numb to the real miracle of Christ’s birth…

…but some things never change – history does repeat itself!  Most people who were alive when Jesus was born missed Christmas too.

The Innkeeper for instance, was totally oblivious to the fact that the Savior of the world was about to be born!  As Mary was full term and ready to deliver this special child, it seems hard to imagine being turned away or given such a lowly place to have your child.  The innkeeper was obviously too busy and too preoccupied with misplaced priorities.  Hmmm, what about us…too busy for God?

King Herod missed the whole point of Christ’s birth because of fear and insecurity.  He wanted to be in control and felt paranoid and threatened by Jesus.  There are many ‘Herods’ among us today – they want no one to interfere with their plans, ambitions and lifestyles.  They don’t want someone else to be king in their lives so they see Jesus and His way of life as a threat and miss Christmas.

Who are we really and where does our identity come from?

Our identity can too often be characterized by what influences us in the media – we must be beautiful, thin, muscular, wealthy… a perceived perfection that is so unattainable! There will always be something new we must achieve in order to gain our worth.

Self worth equates differently to different people.  To some it’s a prestigious job or outward beauty… to others, significance means having a partner or having children who need you and rely on you. Now these things may contribute to our value but…

WHO ARE WE WITHOUT THOSE THINGS?

The ‘floaty’ really is quite an amazing thing. I am of course not talking about the random green thing you find swirling around in your drink! I refer rather to the wonderful little plastic arm bands (usually yellow) that keep someone afloat in the water.

It is such a simple device, and extraordinarily small considering its objective. And unlike those other rather large floating contraptions, like rubber rafts or blow-up tubes, the floaty is set up with perfect ease…

…blow in once, blow in twice, push the cap in, turn it over, blow in once, blow in twice, push the cap in…done!  This miniature ‘lifeboat’ is ready to keep afloat an object at least ten times its size!

Bernhard Markwitz, who was compelled to create what are also known as ‘water wings’ after his three-year old daughter fell into a goldfish pond and nearly drowned, created the floaty in Germany in 1956. Clearly such near-deaths (and actual deaths) must have occurred all the time because the floaty instantly became a world-wide phenomenon, even though its main purpose is now recreational.

My youngest daughter has taken swimming lessons and she can swim to a degree…but not enough for me to plop her into a public pool for a playful swim. So, on go the floaties. She swims back and forth. She spins around. Her limbs randomly tread water. She bombs off the edge. She dives from the stairs. She can do anything…because of her floaties.

Rising very early one morning, I went to my study to spend some time in the presence of God.  It was still dark outside and the sky above was crystal clear and blanketed with stars.  Gazing upward at the beauty, a satellite captured my attention as it slowly crossed the sky.

As I observed it for a few moments, God interrupted my silence and spoke into my spirit…

“That satellite was designed by its makers,” He said.  “They set it on its course around the earth and it is fulfilling certain assignments for them.  This morning, whether you were in bed asleep or not, that satellite was on its set course doing what it was designed to do.  You saw it passing by because you were at the right place at the right time.”

Then He reminded me of something so simple…

Animal instinct is an amazing thing, but where does this ‘natural instinct’ come from? How do Humpback whales know to make the journey from Antarctica to Australia and Fiji in order to give birth in warmer waters? In its migration path from the southern states of the U.S to the upper reaches of Alaska and Canada, the Canadian goose flies for up to 16 hours in a stretch at speeds of up to 60mph. How do they have the stamina to go on and how do they make the same journey every year?

Hundreds of Emperor penguins do ‘the march’ every year, braving the freezing temperatures, searching for food & protecting their young. Male and female alike share their roles – ‘marching’ for food while the other shelters their baby. The male penguin gently covers over his baby with his fur or feathers, shielding and protecting it from all harm. He carefully waddles around holding his baby close. Then Mum arrives (after a very long time) with more food and opens her mouth wide so that her baby can reach up and in to feed on what has been stored there.

Evolution may attempt to explain some animal behavior, but the theory leaves massive holes as to how these animals know how to ‘love’ each other like family members. It can hardly explain the self-sacrifice and commitment of the Emperor penguin father as he practically starves in order to protect his chick. 

Holding, holding, holding. We’re always holding on to something – someone, some thought, some dream. Trying to keep the floating ‘what-ifs’ of life pinned firmly to the ground…

…as if we actually could!

We hold on to many things – some noble, some grand – but most are not even worth noting; like little pebbles on a cement path – pebbles that can just as easily be kicked away as they can be picked up and treasured as if they were worth something.   Some things we hold on to are worth our firm grasp…family and good memories, laughter and lovers, values and beliefs, culture and heritage…we keep close to us the photos of our new-born babies as they first draw breath.

It was a rather windy morning…for a moment, as I looked out the window, I saw a Rosella perched on the end of a branch in our neighbour’s backyard.  It was bobbing every which way as the wind blew.  It amused me to see this bird bobbing up and down on the branch, realising what a strong grip it had.  After watching for another minute or so, the Rosella made its way inward on the branch closer to the tree’s trunk.  There it remained for a short time in a much more stable, sheltered and secured position than a moment or two before.

Romans 12:5

…so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others

We get that we are supposed to all ‘get along.’  We get that we are ‘different’ and that we ‘need’ each other.  We get that all the different parts of the body are required in order for the body to function as a whole.

But I’ve never really thought that I ‘belong’ to each and every member of the body.  I mean, I feel like I belong to the body as a whole, but I’ve really only thought about that as belonging to Christ Himself.

But this passage says I belong to “all the others.”  I belong to them.  I belong to them like a foot belongs to the hand of the body it is attached to.