interdependence

Right after writing about spiritual gifts, Paul wrote:

...just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body,
though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ...
...God arranged the members in the body,
each one of them, as he chose...
...if one member suffers, all suffer together;
if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ
and individually members of it.
~ 1 Corinthians 12.12, 18, 26,27

The ability to be many, yet one, is a supernatural kind of thing. God's math is other-worldly, to say the least, and two of His most beautiful manifestations of this supernatural math are marriage and the Church.

Marriage is described as "one-flesh" - two people that supernaturally become one. The Church is described as "one body" - many members, each with specific and necessary functions, yet one body. This is interdependence. No member can function independent from another member, yet no member can function completely dependent upon another.

We have the amazing privilege to experience, learn and model this supernatural interdependence every Sunday morning. We need each other because there is not one thing that any ONE of us does that ALL of us aren't somehow connected to.

I have seen many of you on many occasions serve one another in order for the team to make it through a Sunday - that's interdependence, that's being Jesus. Even this past Sunday, Debbie left her seat to serve Cherie as the computer demons reared their ugly heads! Props to BOTH of you - and ALL of you - for serving one another. THAT is what the creative arts MINISTRY is about.

When one struggles, we all struggle together.
AND...when one rejoices, we all rejoice together.

And so it is with Christ...