The Sixth Day of Bringing Gifts – December 17, 2012
“On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…six geese  a-laying,  five gold rings – four calling  birds, three  French  hens,  two turtle doves,  and a partridge in a pear tree.”
In his historical  novel,  Chesapeake, James A. Michener describes life on the eastern  shore of Maryland over the course  of many generations. Its main  theme  is slavery. But as always  with Michener, his allusions  to nature make his plot more compelling. At one point he notes how families of geese  do not break  up after the breeding season, raucously protect  their young,  and form strong units that migrate  and winter  together  until they return to their breeding ground. What is notable is their intricate reliance on wing tip formations in flight (something that cyclists practice in big races).
Geese  have been  recognized as reflecting  the interdependence of creation itself. Consider  the six days taken together  as described in Genesis  1. Not a single one works without  the others  – from light-darkness, and water-earth through  the creation of humanity in God’s image  that the other days make possible. Six days a-laying  indeed!  Remove  one and it’s like an entire  act of a Broadway play has dropped out. God never produces a one-act play.
Nor does God produce lone rangers. That’s our doing. However strong we may be, we can’t truly know  God on our own. We have only ourselves to go on. God is superfluous except  as a spiritual  sidekick  who supports us and what we think is right. God always  speaks to an “us” before  a “me” – much  as I exist as a result of many others  who preceded me, two of whom  are responsible for my birth.
We can’t be wisely independent unless  we recognize our interdependence first. That’s why God created us in the first place  and wants  to be with us. That’s why Jesus needed disciples. That’s why believers need  the church, for all its faults and shortcomings. That’s why we give: to honor  and nurture  the interdependence that protects our young,  sustains  us in our journeys, cares for us when we’re vulnerable, and leads us home.
According  to an annual study by a national financial institution, the cost of six geese  a-laying  is approximately $162. To explore  the life-giving possibilities of a $162  gift to the Christmas  Fund for the Veterans  of the Cross and the Emergency  Fund, visit http://bit.ly/CF12_12_12-6.