Belonging to Jesus

The need to belong is a well-documented and researched psychological reality. Fortunately, our text today reminds us that we are called to "belong to Jesus."

Who wants to be alone at Christmas?

No one, unless it's a choice between being alone or entertaining relatives like Cousin Eddie and family in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1 and 2).

If there's one thing that will happen across America this week, it's the gathering of family members and friends to "have Christmas" together. Whether you're observing the religious significance of the day or not, there's widespread agreement that "Christmas isn't Christmas" if you're alone through it all.

Some might argue that these gatherings are simply nice traditions we've developed to make the holidays different from the rest of the year, but, according to social psychologists, we all, to varying degrees, have a need to belong with others.

Well, duh! Most of us already know this. We don't want to spend our lives alone. In the seventeenth century, the great English poet and cleric John Donne wrote, "No man is an island, / Entire of itself. / Each is a piece of the continent, / A part of the...