Most of the time, I hate my feet. They’re tiny, have terrible circulation and get puffy sometimes. As a paraplegic who was born with spina bifida, my relationship with my feet and legs is strange anyway. I don’t walk, so what do I need to take care of them for?
Once someone unthinkingly said to me, “You should just get rid of your feet. You don’t use them anyway, right?” Would it be right to cut off or remove a part of a body that is weaker or less functional? No–at least not for me.
Paul reminds the believers at Corinth that they are indeed a community, meant to live, work, and serve interdependently (1 Corinthians 12:15-27). They are the body of Christ, joined to one another through and by Christ himself. Does the body need each part? Yes! Because God has given each part, each member, a place to belong.
We are the body of Christ, together. If we aren’t all together at the table, we miss out on relationship and on experiencing how God moves and acts in all people.
This message is an excerpt of “Belonging to the body of Christ” by Lisa Heffernan in Café’s February 2019 Faith Reflections.
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