When I injured my ring finger, I expected months of pain before regaining its full function. As I practiced the prescribed exercises the finger next to it began to throb, so I consulted my doctor. “Sympathy pain,” he said. A branching between the nerves of the ring and pinky fingers causes dependence on one another. If one finger hurts, the other aches in sympathy.
The apostle Paul uses the human body to illustrate the uniqueness and unity of God’s people. In 1 Corinthians 12:21–26, he reinforces how valuable each individual member is to the healthy functioning of the whole. Then he turns his attention to the unity achieved when we connect with each other. “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (v. 25). His description of the church’s interconnectedness is echoed in these verses, “mourn with those who mourn,” and “carry each other’s burdens” (Romans 12:15; Galatians 6:2).
Today, as I extend my hand to greet someone or grab a spoon to prepare a meal for guests, I notice the strain in both my ring finger and my pinky. The various parts of our physical bodies work together to express pain and to strengthen each other toward health. I thank God that He reveals our need for connection to each other in His spiritual body, the church, through sympathy pain.
A team of landscape architects studied the effects of providing a fence around a preschool playground. On playgrounds without fences, children tended to gather close to the school building and their teacher and didn’t stray away. But on fenced-in playgrounds, they enjoyed the entire area. The researchers concluded that boundaries can create a greater sense of freedom. This seems counterintuitive to so many of us who think boundaries restrict enjoyment. Yet fences can provide freedom!
God underlines the freedom His boundaries provide for us. In offering the Ten Commandments to Israel, He promised that a “prosperous” life would result from living life within His divine boundaries. “Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess” (Deuteronomy 5:33). Here the concept of prosperity includes a life lived with good results—a life of quality.
Jesus, who fulfilled the law with His death on the cross, proclaimed, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). Indeed, God’s boundaries are for our good. “Fences” can free us to enjoy the life God created us to experience with Him.
Lisa and Freddie McMillan own a unique restaurant in Brewton, Alabama. They offer a full hot meal to all who stand in line—at no charge. This couple has invested from their own savings to make a difference for senior citizens who often go without meals and rarely enjoy a restaurant experience. A donation box receives contributions. Lisa says, “Sometimes we find nothing there. Sometimes a thank-you note. Sometimes $1,000. Always, we have everything we need. Our goal is to feed the need, restore dignity, and develop community.”
Caring for the needy can seem a daunting task—unless we depend on God! The gospels include records of Jesus feeding thousands by inviting His disciples to participate: “You give them something to eat” (Matthew 14:16). In Acts we learn that in the early church, believers “shared everything they had” (4:32) so that “there were no needy persons among them” (v. 34). Many of them sold property and gave the proceeds to the apostles who “distributed to anyone who had need” (vv. 34-35). Understanding their possessions ultimately belonged to God, they voluntarily invested from what they owned in the lives of others.
God provides. Sometimes by His own hand and sometimes through the hands of His people. He feeds our need so that we can feed the need of others.
After I joined the board of trustees of a seminary, the long-term leader announced his retirement. I found myself among those tasked with searching for a new president. Together, we amassed a daunting list of qualifications. How would we find someone to fulfill such a complicated and vital role?
I wondered the same as I read God’s specifications for the tabernacle’s lampstands to be crafted of pure gold, with flower-like cups and almond flowers and six branches (Exodus 25:31-35). And the courtyard was “to have curtains of finely twisted linen, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases and with silver hooks and bands on the posts” (27:9-10). Who could fulfill such assignments?
God answers, “I have chosen Bezalel . . . and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills . . . to engage in all kinds of crafts” (31:2-5). God also said, “I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you” (v. 6).
Where do we turn to fill a vacant role for a high-level leader, a volunteer at church, or to orchestrate an event? To the God who calls and equips His people. God laid out an ambitious design for His temple. Then He chose and equipped His people to implement it. God’s answer to His plans is God’s people.
Bert placed his debit card atop the restaurant bill. The waiter scooped it up and then paused to ask, “Wait, who is this guy who says ‘I am the way the truth and life?’ That’s so conceited!” Bert realized the waiter was reacting to the words printed on the card by his Christian financial company—Jesus’ words from John 14:6. Amused at the waiter’s response, Bert explained the identity of “this guy” and His sacrificial offering to bring us to God.
When we encounter people who know nothing about our faith, we might respond with ridicule or even judgment. But the apostle Peter challenged us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). Then he warned, “Do this with gentleness and respect” (v. 16). In Colossians 4:6, Paul explained the power of such a response, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Just as salt on our food enhances flavor, salty answers invite others closer to faith.
Questions may come in surprising settings from those completely unfamiliar with Jesus Christ. When we respond with gentleness and grace, our answers offer a saltiness that entices questioners to yearn for more.
In the animated movie Toy Story, a child’s toys come to life whenever he leaves the room or falls asleep. One character, a space ranger named Buzz Lightyear, shouts his signature catchphrase while demonstrating his ability to fly about the bedroom. “To infinity and beyond!”
It’s a phrase that has confused many. Isn’t infinity as far as you can go? How can there be anything “beyond” infinity? Drawing on wisdom from ancient Greek philosophers, mathematician Ian Stewart suggests that what is beyond infinity are yet bigger infinities. On and on and on.
Jesus seems to employ such exponential effort in the realm of forgiveness. When Peter asked Jesus, “How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times. You must forgive him even if he wrongs you seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22). Jesus goes on to tell a parable comparing a merciful and unmerciful servant, making the point that when someone truly regrets their error, there is no limit to the number of times we are to forgive. We are to forgive others the way God forgives us (v. 33). Over and over, on and on.
That may seem impossible to us. That’s why we constantly need to ask God for His help.
Only in His strength can we do this. Forgiven people forgive people. To infinity and beyond!
After our family held a riverside memorial service for my father, we each selected a stone to help us remember him. His life had been a checkerboard of wins and losses, but we knew his heart was for us. My fingers traced my stone’s smooth surface and helped me hold him close.
In Luke 19, Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, while the crowds waved palm branches, shouted Hosannas, and cheered, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (v. 38). In the Pharisees’ disdain of what they perceived to a blasphemous claim of messiahship, they ordered Jesus to tell the disciples to be quiet. Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (v. 40).
The stones do cry out, in many ways. God used stones throughout the story of His love for us. Two rough-hewn stones carried ten chiseled commandments to tell us how to live (Exodus 34:1–2). Stones of remembrance piled by the Jordan River reminded generations of God’s provision and faithfulness (Joshua 4:8–9). The one rolled into place to contain Jesus’ body is the same one rolled away to show He had risen (Matthew 27:59–66; Luke 24:2). We “hear” this stone as it reminds us of Jesus’ words, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).
Listen to the stones and lift your own voice along with them in praise to our loving Father.
Late one night, a Kenyan elephant sanctuary received a call that an elephant calf had fallen into a well. The rescue team arrived to cries of despair flooding the darkness and discovered that two-thirds of the baby’s trunk had been lost to hyenas. Transporting the calf to their safe haven, they named him Long’uro, which means “something that has been cut.” Though he possessed only one-third of his trunk, Long’uro healed and was embraced by the rest of the herd at the sanctuary. Elephants innately know they need each other, so they help each other.
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul underscores our need to help each other within the body of Christ. He uses the metaphor of the human body and its individual parts to describe how God intends His people to welcome all gifts in all people because all are needed for His body to function (vv. 12-26). Then Paul explains how unity in diversity is accomplished. “God has put the body together,” he wrote, “giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other” (vv. 24-25).
Whether weak or strong, fancy or common, let’s help each other. Like the elephants, people need each other too.
David Vetter died at age twelve after spending his entire life in a bubble. Nicknamed “The Bubble Boy,” David was born with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). His parents had lost their first son to the disease and were determined to protect their second-born. To prolong his life, NASA engineers designed a plastic protection bubble as well as a spacesuit so his parents could hold David in the outside world. Oh, how we all long to protect those we love!
King David was wronged by Nabal, the foolish husband of Abigail. In a rogue moment, David sought revenge by his own hands. Abigail rushed to meet him with a wise reminder, “Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the
We do well to work to protect others when they need it, but it’s only in God’s perfect care that they’re truly safe.
