Last night I was putting together an antique lawyer’s bookcase – the kind where each side, each back, each shelf, each front are all different pieces. As I was trying to get one layer to stay together – and not having much luck – I was thinking about how the bookcase is kind of a metaphor for the Body of Christ. Each piece of the bookcase is critical to the whole thing holding together. Put all the pieces together and you have a beautiful, solid, strong piece of furniture. The Body of Christ is similar – each piece is critical to the whole.
In his treatise on spiritual gifts in 1 Cor. 12 Paul includes this:
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body…
Unlike my bookcase, which is held together puzzle-like by fitting pieces and some gravity, the Body is held together by the Spirit. Whew! So the ways in which I can’t see how this piece or that piece “fit” are ways in which the Spirit is already putting us together.
These past two weekends I’ve had experiences of God’s love poured out through the people of his Body, the Church. Both Saturdays our family moved our belongings to a new home and we had wonderful help for the physical move, for cleaning, painting, and repairs, and for child care.
Last Sunday at church was Youth Sunday and part of the message was highlighting the mission trip to Honduras. Those that go on the mission trip come back telling of how God connected them to other mission trip participants and to the people they went to serve. Knit together by God’s Spirit, the Body does great things.
So, my prayer this week…
God, help us remember you chose each of us to be a part of your Body. Thank you for this gift of salvation and abundant life. Help us appreciate how we fit into that Body and how others do, too. Fit all of us together for fruitful Kingdom work. By your Spirit help us do great things. Amen.