The largest singly-owned cattle ranch in the world is in Hawaii on the Big Island. It is the Parker Ranch and comprises 250,000 acres. It all began with John Parker, a seaman who jumped ship there in 1809. He rounded up some cattle that had been brought to the island and then allowed to run wild. From this meager beginning, there came the largest individually owned cattle ranch in the world.
That is the kind of story we love: rags to riches, log cabin to White House. Of course, the gospel story is just the opposite of that: riches to rags; White House to log cabin. The apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians that "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor." A close reading of Jesus' birth story will tell you how very poor He became. Jesus reversed roles so that you might be rich... rich in another kind of wealth, in the coin of another realm.
