At the NBC Camps Christmas party, we took red and white pipe cleaners and wound them together to make a candy cane. While doing so, the prompt was to pray and consider a relationship or a country that needed unity. I love this image of unity. As the red and white become intertwined, the result is both lovely and whimsical. I have a feeling of light heartedness when I look at these two objects, now united. This is the miracle of unity. What seems so grave, heavy, impossible, frustrating, fearful, can become light, lighthearted, even joyful.

I consider what unity I need to pray for in my life. I search for heavy emotions – ones that feel like burdens because they are seeped with envy, fear, or uncertainty.  How can I hold these with greater hope?  The candy cane was originally a tool used by confectioners to share the good news of the gospel. The red blood of Christ combined with the white to remind us, our sins are white as snow, and we now can be unified in relationship with the Holy God.  The hook of the cane served as a reminder of the shepherds visited by the angels- some of the first to hear the good news.  Good news!! I think of this good news as I pray and wind the red and white together to make a candy cane.

Unity is what Paul reminds us to pray for in Philippians.  He says, “Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, being unified in spirit.”  Isn’t joy the perfect outcome of unity? A home that is unified, a friendship, a marriage, a business, a community, a world filled with unity rather than strife and war.  This is my prayer this Christmas Season.

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,  then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” Philippians 2:1-3

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