A Deeply Connected Community

If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. -1 Corinthians 12:26
 
It is that winter season when the air turns frigid and dry. My body has noticed this primarily in my fingers.  This is hangnail weather.  It is amazing that something so small and seemingly insignificant can hurt and disrupt whatever I am doing.  The nerve endings that surround my fingernails are so deeply connected to my whole body that what they feel, all of me feels.

In his letter to the church in Corinth, St Paul tells them that they are each individual members of one body.  Each person is needed to make a functioning body.  No one can be dismissed as unimportant or insignificant.  Therefore, when one of us is suffering we all suffer because we are knit together as the body of Christ.  Likewise, Paul tells us that we also need to rejoice together when good things happen.  The good in your life is good for all who share in the body of Christ. 

May you experience church not as simply a place to go, but a body you belong to. 

May we surround one another as a deeply connected community.

And may we know that the love of Christ is what draws us together.

Matt+