If you’re mechanically challenged like me, then perhaps you’ve shared this experience. You purchase something new at the store, and on the box it includes the dreaded words “Some assembly required.” Upon returning home, you spend several hours deciphering inscrutable directions and searching for tools. Then finally your creation is done – but, hmmm….there are several pieces and parts “left over.” I tell my wife, “Oh, those are extra, or they weren’t really that important anyway.” She always rolls her eyes, sighs deeply, and leaves the room.
I’ve been thinking about my adventures in home assembly in the context of our theme for this school year “We are the Body” based on I Corinthians 12:12-27. Like that new desk I bought at Target, the body of Christ here at St. Luke’s is made up of many different parts. But unlike my dubious attempts at assembling furniture, in the body of Christ every part is important and plays a role, and none are “left over.” While we are united in Christ, we recognize that each of us is an individual with our own unique gifts and talents. We are not all alike, and that’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with being different – in fact, the body needs each of its different parts. Every child at St. Luke’s is an unrepeatable miracle of God and plays a unique and important role in our body. Too many times children can be labeled as “problems” that need to be fixed. Not here! You don’t have to be a super scholar, star athlete, or “perfect little angel” to be an important part of the body of Christ. Let’s celebrate the special gifts that every child at St. Luke’s has received. Together “we are the body”!