SHARE Magazine October 2016 | Page 14

Greed - The Thief of Glory M “Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ring tailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it’s simple. They’ve been catching this agile little animal with ease for years. The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it. This he cannot do. His fist is now larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours. But he can’t get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him.”[1] 14 | SHARE|MAGAZINE The gifts exchanged at Christmas should be in memory of the greatest gift ever i.e. Jesus, God’s gift of salvation to all humanity. Sinful man however, saw this exchanging of gifts as an opportunity to feed our greed and so the focus was totally removed from Jesus to materialism. Christmas is the most profitable time of the year for businesses because people do more shopping during this period than at any other time of the year. Year after year we continue to indulge ourselves with more food, wine, decorations, gadgets and a mountain of other things while with every advancing year Jesus is met with more rejection than the year before. In many towns and cities the name of Jesus must not even be mentioned or nativity scenes depicting His birth be mounted publicly. Our greed has ousted God and we are beginning to see the devastating effects of it in our drug,