Linked together

For the Christmas season I am going to hang this stained glass looking chain near my bay window area. Actually I think I will leave it up now because it is so colorful. No--I changed my mind--I will wait and put the leaves back up ;-)

It is made by using these tags (sold at Walmart craft section)

And by using colored paper clips (but you can use regular ones too)--I used the large clips. I found these at Office Depot, but Walmart may have them.

I think it will be fun to link the smaller colored paper clips together to make a colored chain for the Christmas tree and it would make fun necklaces and bracelets!! Any color or colors you want!!

Now for the spiritual side of all of this: In Bonhoeffer's book, "Life Together" he writes: "In a Christian community everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. Only when even the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable..........It will be well therefore if every member receives a definite task to perform for the community, that he may know in hours of doubt that he, too, is not useless and unusable.

Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of fellowship."

He also speaks about the fact that all of us are here to serve each other and each other's needs.

I found Mother Teressa was a real example of this--she lived to serve and to serve humbly. She, like even Gandhi (who was not a Christian , but was moved by the power of God's truth in the beatitudes ) "understood that the direction of charity is not condescending, but rather ascending: in serving the weak and the poor, we are privileged to serve God himself." But it is hard to put others ahead of ourselves!!! I do love the concept of a community being individuals linked together and that each of us are indispensable to the rest. --kind of like Paul's description of each of us being a part of the body--like a hand, a toe, etc--we each need each other.