This is the Body

Tonight our family attended the first official Saturday night service of a church in our community. I knew we would see a certain number of our friends there, but in actuality, I could see only a few people we hadn't met yet. It was great! In a way, it's going to be sad to know what we'll be missing every Saturday night in our home town. You see, everybody wants to belong. It's important for people to feel like a part of something bigger than themselves. To know that if they don't show, people will miss them and wonder where they are.

Our friends are neat people. Most of them are not all that wealthy. A lot of them work for local ministries or are themselves ministers. One of our friends came up to us tonight and asked, "Besides your house selling and a car, do you have any other needs." I thought for a minute about this friend. I knew he was saying, "Is there something I have that you need?"

I love that about the body of Christ. You don't have to have tons of money to do ministry. Or a huge church to preach to. You don't have to do everything. Just do what you can. Sometimes I find myself not helping at all because I feel like what I have to give just isn't enough. But God does not ask me to use what I do not have. This friend took our family out to eat at a local fast food restaraunt tonight. We hung out as families and they told us the funny stories of how they met. It was really great. They met a real need in our lives of food and fellowship.

It's just like the Cheers song, "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came." That's the body of Christ.