I have just returned home from watching three of my grandson’s while their parents were away for the week. My goodness, we had a lot of fun! It was full of love, hugs, slobbery kisses from the littlest one, running, loudness, helpfulness and so much more. As I was reflecting on a particular day it occurred to me that this joyful, busy, loving chaos was pretty much what the body of Christ looks like. How?

We need each other, it is really that simple. Each person in the body of Christ has different abilities, strengths, weaknesses. Some have great faith while others have little faith. Some know how to do much and others not so much. Some are leaders and some followers and some who simply have not learned how to do much of anything.

My grandsons are 7, 5 and not yet 2 years old. The middle and youngest look to their eldest brother to help them and lead them.
He knows how to do so much more than they do. If he does the wrong thing, then they usually are involved because they follow him. They think he knows it all, yet really he is just a beginner in life also, just further along in his journey. When the baby wanted to be comforted and I was busy at some task, he went to his oldest brother to be loved and reassured.

The middle one wants to do everything his older brother does and if his older brother is not around he misses him and longs to see him again soon. They each have strengths and similarities, yet are completely different and independent in how they see things. They have the same parents, yet each looks and acts a little different, but yet have different parts of their parents in them that you can see.

We as the body of Christ are like family. We need to be available to one another, loving, helping reassuring one another as we walk this road of life. Some of us have stronger faith, some of us have stronger strengths, but the one common denominator is we are all children of God. We have the same Father, we have a common faith, but we are different in how we live out that faith. Some may be involved in ministry, others are behind the scenes type people. There are those who counsel and those that need it.

But the underlying heart is Christ, our Father, our Faith. We work separate yet together to further the kingdom here on this earth. Our tasks do not look the same, yet each one fulfills an important role in the body of Christ. Just because some are baby Christian’s and have not figured it all out does not mean they are not important. Maybe someone has been saved for a while, yet still unsure how to do the things that seem easy to a more mature Christian, kinda like the middle child.

God loves us the same, uses each of us, yet makes each of us unique in the family but much needed in the family. We also need to remember that as a family we are constantly looking for someone who has different abilities than us, possibly to learn ourselves how to be stronger in a certain area.

Never think that you are less than because of where you are in your walk with Christ, in the family. Keep looking to Him and when necessary come alongside another who has been where you are and can gently help you along. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and be willing to be taught. And in those times when you need to be comforted by “someone with skin on,” go to a fellow believer whom you trust and rest your head on them, receive a much-needed hug of encouragement. There is no shame in it!
We need each other, just like our earthly families need each other and are made complete by the sameness and differences that each brings to the table.

Sometimes it is noisy, messy, joyful, full of chaos fun, even in the body of Christ!

1 Corinthian/s 12:5-6 “There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”

1 Peter 4:10-11 “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen”

Romans 12:3-8 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these membe4rs do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith, 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”