In my class today I had my students make Christmas trees out of green construction paper. They covered them with stickers, adorned them with delicate drawings, and smothered them with glitter. They were really quite something to behold.
But the center was left blank. That was where they were supposed to write something. "Christmas is often looked at as a time when we get lots of things," I told them. "But Christmas is really about giving, not getting. It's a time to remember what God gave to us, and to give things to other people as a way of saying thank you." (Ah, the joys of working in a school - and a country - where opportunities to talk about God are not smothered by regulations and political correctness!)
So I told my students to write in the middle something that they wanted to do for someone else over winter break this year. Almost all of them said that they wanted to volunteer in orphanages. They could have just as easily said that they would take their friend out to dinner, or help their mother clean, or let their sister have the bigger serving of rice cake. But they didn't. They looked outside of themselves. They wanted to do something real, something for the people for whom nobody else does anything.
It was touching, seeing how they wanted to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate than them. It was also a bit humbling, because I was one of the few people who did not write that I wanted to work with orphaned children on my Christmas tree. But yet, isn't that really why we're here? To serve others? That, for Jesus, is the mark of true greatness. So how great are you?
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
But the center was left blank. That was where they were supposed to write something. "Christmas is often looked at as a time when we get lots of things," I told them. "But Christmas is really about giving, not getting. It's a time to remember what God gave to us, and to give things to other people as a way of saying thank you." (Ah, the joys of working in a school - and a country - where opportunities to talk about God are not smothered by regulations and political correctness!)
So I told my students to write in the middle something that they wanted to do for someone else over winter break this year. Almost all of them said that they wanted to volunteer in orphanages. They could have just as easily said that they would take their friend out to dinner, or help their mother clean, or let their sister have the bigger serving of rice cake. But they didn't. They looked outside of themselves. They wanted to do something real, something for the people for whom nobody else does anything.
It was touching, seeing how they wanted to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate than them. It was also a bit humbling, because I was one of the few people who did not write that I wanted to work with orphaned children on my Christmas tree. But yet, isn't that really why we're here? To serve others? That, for Jesus, is the mark of true greatness. So how great are you?
Mark 9:33-37
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
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