Snowflakes

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. – 1 Corinthians 12:27

Yesterday my youngest and I were waiting at the end of the driveway for the school bus to come.  There was a very gentle snow falling, delivering the most perfect snowflakes everywhere around us.  She was taking her black glove and catching them in her hands and we were marveling at how spectacular they really were.  She was begging me to go get the camera but it was too close to bus time, so you will just have to trust me at how beautiful they were.

The bus came and went, the snow stopped, and I resumed the rest of my day.  Last night was church night.  I was teaching my youngest’s class about sheep and their many meanings in the Bible.  That we are God’s sheep and that we need Him to shepherd us at all times.  That when one of us strays, he will leave the flock just to get us back!  Amazing.  He must want us in community, together, with him shepherding us where we need to be.  Together.

Back to the snowflakes then.  I remembered earlier this winter (when we actually had some snow) when my youngest and her older brother created a super awesome snowman.  I was thinking about how many of those spectacular snowflakes went in to the creation of those three large balls stacked upon each other.  Was it thousands or billions?  I’m not sure of the exact amount, but I do know it was large.  That if my kiddos would have to individually grab one tiny snowflake at a time, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun and would take so much more time to create.  May be even impossible.

A few weeks ago I was at a church group listening to a fellow lay person giving us a devotion.  He told us a story about how if you take one stick and bend it, it will break.  But if you put many sticks together and try to bend them, they won’t break.  They are stronger together.

Hmmmm?!?  Kind of the same as the snowflakes.  They are stronger together then apart.  Hmmmm?!?  Kind of the same as us.  We are stronger together then apart.  God never wanted us to do this life alone.  He created us to live in community with one another.  We are stronger together – able to serve and meet other’s needs better.  Together.

Just as a body though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we are all given on Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many…But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body…But God has put the body together, 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.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it.   – 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 18-20, 24-27

Let’s not be individual snowflakes that just fall on a mitten and melt.  Let’s be individual snowflakes that fall together to create spectacular works of art!  Go today in God’s name and make peace with a family member, co-worker, or friend that may have wronged you.  Remember to listen in return, because you may have wronged them at some point too.  We must get back together to work as one body in Christ.  We need each other!  God doesn’t want one of his sheep lost from the herd.  He’s using you to help keep the herd together because we are stronger together then as one.

Then Jesus told them this parable:  “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'” – Luke 15:3-6