A history reprint

Bellsouth Pty. Ltd.         Christmas Newsletter 2006

BELLSOUTH
IMPORTANT NOTICE
In the Summer
of 2006/ 2007

We Will Be Closed
For counter sales from Friday 22 December and reopening 1St Feb 2007 . During the break orders placed by mail, email or fax will be processed intermittently. To ensure supplies for the holiday period please place your orders by 22 December. To ensure arrival prior to Christmas please place orders by 17 December.

Dear Friends,


I received a rather intriguing gift from a business associate in Korea, a lovely vase in traditional southern Korean style. A thoughtful and beautiful gift from a business associate.

But I was surprised to realise how small is the hole for flowers. I found a book on traditional Japanese and Korean flower arranging and found the designs were very simple, not what we would call flowers at all. It seems it is all about the skill of the artist in making the jar and the beauty of the finished jar.

About the same time, our thirtieth wedding anniversary came up, and I purchased a modern vase for Jenny. I went to the florist with the vase and said I would like a display for the vase, but not too flash as I wanted the vase to be recognised as well as the flowers. I mean the flowers are nice but the vase is the real present so make sure she will notice!

I had spent some time thinking about flowers and flower arrangements, and I was walking in the garden when I noticed a single large rose bloom, called a chameleon rose as it has many colours and an incredible fragrance. I cut the stem of the rose and carried it into the house to place in a vase. While I was looking in the cupboard for a suitable something I placed the rose in a jar on the bench. It was hard to find something suited to the beauty of the rose, and any vase just seemed to detract from it.

While I was thinking of this a passage in the Bible sprang to mind. "God has given us a great treasure in a common earthenware container. " An unusual thought, so I looked up the passage, sure enough that's what it said. I looked up the original meaning and in today's terms it is something like, "God has given us this treasure in a common peanut butter jar." Then I realised it was like the rose in the jar, no one thinks of the jar, just the rose.

I wondered what is this treasure, and found it was God's glory, and that He had sent that glory to reside in us. What a privilege to realise God had done that and He had done that in me, an ordinary peanut butter jar. I think He did it so when the glory shines out people will thank God, not the peanut butter jar.

And I think that is also what the whole Christmas story is about.


Best wishes

Jim, Jenny and the team at Bellsouth 2006