Anthropologist Margaret Meade was asked by a student what she considered to be the first signs of civilization in a culture. Ms. Mead answered in this way:

The first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break you leg you die. You can not run from danger, walk to the water for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken bone long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that some one has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up their wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone through difficulty is where civilization starts. We are at our best when we serve others.  Be civilized.

I had never supposed a healed broken femur to be a sign of civilization. I guess I assumed people always had some way of healing a bone, rudimentary as it may have been in ancient civilizations so I found the notion of this discovery very interesting.    

Civilization, according to Margaret Mead was when people started taking care of and helping other people just as God instructed us to do in Galatians 6:10: Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfil the laws of the Lord.

Rivers do not drink their own water. Trees do not eat their own fruit. The sun does not shine on itself. Flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is, life is good when you are happy, but much better when we are helping others as God commanded us. 

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19. He continues to love us unconditionally.  Share that love with others by giving unselfishly of yourself. Thanks be to God!

Patty