[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during December 2020]
Has it ever occurred to you that, if it were not for Christmas, turkeys might well have been hunted to extinction? Although they can be on the menu at any time of year, it is the need to provide for the following year’s Christmas (and Thanksgiving) celebrations that ensures the survival of the species. Ironically, it is because some turkeys die that turkeys as a species thrive.
I live on a small-holding where, each year, we raise a new generation of turkeys, along with chickens and guinea fowl. They grow up together until it is time to return to their respective flocks. As adult birds, turkeys are not very attractive to look at and their gobbling sound is discordant; they are not as productive as the hens but least they are not as stupid as the guinea fowl. Nevertheless, their destiny is the same – a pot of boiling water on top of a stove.
The concept of one dying so that others can live is not new. There are many reports of how, in time of war, patriots have been willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, and even in less turbulent times people have taken great risks in order to save others. It occurs in the natural world too, where a herd of zebra or wildebeest will relax once one of their number has been caught by the lions.
As Christians, we recognise the greatest example of such a sacrifice. Paul wrote to our predecessors in Rome:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [Romans 5:6-8, nivuk]
It is because of Christ’s death that those who put their trust in Him can live, not only with confidence whilst we wait here but with reassurance about the life to come. So as you tuck into your Christmas turkey remember that one Man died so that you do not have to end up somewhere too hot for comfort.
More Brussels, anyone?
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
