What Do We Really Need?
When it comes to living and enjoying life … what do we really need? Seriously – what do you and I really NEED?
We need God, of course. Our relationship with Him is the only thing we truly need. He will provide everything else.
As evidence, consider the Moxihatetema.
“National Geographic” writer Scott Wallace published an online story about them a couple days before Thanksgiving. In it, he writes:
“Spectacular new images of an uncontacted indigenous village in Brazil are stirring pleas from tribal leaders and rights advocates for government intervention to protect the settlement from illegal gold prospectors.
“The aerial photographs show villagers gathered in the center of a traditional, circular structure inside the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, a sprawling reserve of rivers and upland forest situated astride the border with Venezuela.
“Known as the Moxihatetema, the villagers have assiduously shunned contact with outsiders, even with other Yanomami communities.”
Wallace reported that the aerial reconnaissance occurred in advance of “a joint operation with army troops and police agents to clear out thousands of wildcat gold miners.”
Guilherme Gnipper, the official who shot the aerial photographs, told Wallace, “We saw no manufactured products whatsoever; nothing made of metal. They are living well—in complete isolation. It was like time travel.”
Friends, take a minute and think about what this means.
The Moxihatetema have never had contact with humans outside their village; they have no idea of how big (or small, depending on your perspective) the world is. Can you imagine what they think if they dare venture out on a scouting mission to see what those wildcat goldminers are up to?
For that matter, imagine what they thought of a low-flying airplane buzzing them for photos. Surely they see contrails of much-higher-flying passenger and cargo planes when they look to the sky. The probably even see the myriad satellites orbiting our planet after dark; the skies there have to be spectacular for stargazing.
None of that, however, is the point of this column.
We’ve just been through about 10 days of frenzy revolving around purely secular, worldly concerns … shopping; buying stuff; getting that elusive gift before it sells out. We have posted photos of our adventures in shopping to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. We have watched football endlessly, it seems.
The Moxihatetema prove that we don’t need any of it. They also prove that God will see to His people’s needs … even if they are people who have yet to experience the love, mercy and forgiveness of His only begotten Son because … well … they have no idea He ever existed.
Friends … as we prepare to commemorate that moment in Bethlehem when “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” join me for thanking God that He has revealed the Moxihatetema to the world. In doing so, He has offered another reminder of how little our “progress” truly matters in His plan.
