1 Corinthians 12:12-14 —  Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Last night was the dress rehearsal for our Christmas extravaganza — The Living Christmas Trees. Standing in the tress and looking out at the audience was amazing. The many volunteer helpers who are not actually part of our performance were the audience for the day. There must have been 500 people — car park managers, welcoming guides, ticket takers, guides, program people, ushers,  … many many front of house volunteers. Then some of the backstage staff — wardrobe, make-up and others … It’s impossible to list them all. Add to this the cast, dancers, 3 youth music groups,  an adult choir of more than 100, orchestra, directors, audio-visual technicians and more. Hundreds of people. Not for the first time I was prompted to think about the wonder of the church working together to a common purpose, and then to think how impossible it would be if one group or another decided not to cooperate.
Of course there’s nothing unique about what happens in our church. There are hundreds — if not thousands — of churches across the country where similar things happen. Groups of people, large and small, join together to find unique and wonderful ways of celebrating the birth of Jesus and reaching out to those who are not yet part of the church to spread the gospel at this most wonderful time of the year.
I don’t know of anything else like it. One focal point, one event, one catalyst — and thousand of people coming together to celebrate at the same time. 
The body is made up of so many parts. Each one of us with a unique combination of talents (and inadequacies!). And just occasionally we all come together and agree to set aside preferences and personalities and agree to do whatever is needed to celebrate and tell the story.
There is no great message to this devotion. I just felt moved to write about how wonderful this is to me. Sometimes God’s plan seem so unlikely to me. Can you imagine the three persons of the Trinity in communion deciding how best to make sure the message get communicated to all the world. “The Nativity is so wonderful — let’s take every part of it and use it as a symbol. Let’s make all those symbols beautiful to our children in the church so they celebrate and want to share the  celebration with all the world…”. It’s such an unlikely plan, and so perfect!
Dear Lord, thank you for the joy of Christmas.