“Let’s pick teams!” I’d be hard pressed to think of three words I feared more than those when I was growing up. It could be the playground at recess or a neighbor’s house after school – whenever it was time to play basketball, or kickball, or football. Before the game began, we had to pick teams. Two of the best athletes would declare themselves team captains, and then proceed to take turns picking players for their teams from the assembled group of kids. Invariably I was the last one picked or wasn’t even picked at all. That’s what happens when you’re the scrawniest, the shortest, and the slowest (looking at me today, I’m sure you find that hard to believe 🙂
I’ve been thinking about being picked last in the context of our theme for this school year “We are the Body” based on I Corinthians 12:12-27. I’m sure many of you have at some time in your life felt like I did – the one left out or left over. But I Corinthians 12:21 tells a different story: “The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” We are united as one in the body of Christ. We cannot separate ourselves from each other – nobody gets left off the team. Jesus is our captain, and He says that everybody plays. This verse teaches us that in fact we need each other, because each of us has God-given talents and gifts that play an important role in the body. We are held together by the ties that bind, namely the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Rejecting one of our fellow members of the body of Christ makes about as much sense as saying we reject our own hand or our own eye. Let’s embrace, celebrate, and include everyone in the game of life! And hey, maybe you’ll even pick me first 🙂