The holiday season can be a time of significant contradictions. At this time of year, we see more clearly the contrasts between plenty and poverty, kindness and cruelty, celebration and isolation, togetherness and loneliness. It is to this fractured and needy world that God has offered a wonderful gift, the gift of community.
As beautiful as every other God-ordained institution is—whether it be friendship, marriage, or family—none is inclusive enough for everyone to experience His divine embrace of love and acceptance. Matthew 22:30 indicates that all other relationships are temporary, but community has an eternal destiny. Everyone is invited to the fellowship of the Church and everyone has significance in this community. To our amazement, all other relationships—including friendship, marriage, and family—take on a deeper meaning and are strengthened when we enter into the God-created and sustained reality of community.
Leslie Brandt paraphrases Philippians 1:1–11 to capture the Apostle Paul's love of the Church and the beauty of community in this way:
I have met some beautiful people
in the course of my travels.
They are my sisters and brothers in Christ,
fellow servants in the kingdom-work of God.
Every time I think about them, I do so prayerfully,
and a surge of joy fills my heart.
God spoke to me, comforted me in my despair,
and through these people challenged me in my apathy.
I pray that God will continue to use them
to reach others
even as He used them to undergird and uplift me
and that what He has begun in us He will continue
until we are brought together
in everlasting fellowship
in that dimension beyond this life and world.
My prayer for you this holiday season is that you experience God's wonderful gift of community. If you don't have a church community and are blessed to have a local Salvation Army church in your area, we invite you to discover the beauty of ordinary people committed to making an impact on our hurting world. We invite you to a community where you will be welcomed, included, and encouraged as you discover God's purpose and plan for your life.
Grace and Peace,
Major Mark Tillsley
Secretary for Personnel
USA Eastern Territory
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