Years ago, I had the opportunity to swim in…well, really…float in the Dead Sea. Its high salt content not only makes you buoyant, but makes for an environment where nothing can live. Why is it so salty and deadly? The Dead Sea has no outflow. Water flows in from higher elevations, but then has nowhere to go. The Dead Sea is 1,412 feet below sea level, making it the lowest land in the world. The water stagnates under the hot desert sun, and evaporates faster than in the oceans, leaving behind more and more salt.
The Dead Sea teaches us an important lesson. You can’t just receive and be healthy. You must have an outflow…a way to give. We know that the Christmas story is all about God’s love for us, that he would send his son, Jesus, to be with us, our Emmanuel! But today’s passage reminds us of an important lesson…God’s love for us is intended to be given away. He has an endless supply. “Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”
Like the Dead Sea, when we as believers receive the love of God, but don’t let it move through us to others, we become stagnant and “dead.” This Christmas season, let’s celebrate Christ’s birth by letting his great love for humanity, flow through us.