The body of Christ is a beautiful thing. When it works as Christ intended it to work, when unity in the body allows for humility and service, then the body of Christ is a beautiful and amazing thing. I’m getting to get a glimpse of it now, and I find myself moved to tears… both by the generosity of my fellow believers and by frustration that there are so many non-believers that never see this side of Christianity… they never see this face of our Jesus.
The health problems that have plagued me for the better part of my life, but that we’ve been trying to treat for nearly a year now have finally come to a head. Endometriosis has moved my right ovary out of position in my body, leaving me in crippling pain for the past several weeks. On September 24th, I will be having a total abdominal hysterectomy and the removal of the right ovary and fallopian tube. We (my husband, my doctor, and
myself) are hoping that this will be the end of many, even most of my problems. But this is major abdominal surgery, and it’s going to be a long recovery, including a hospital stay. I’m not looking forward to my recovery at all… but I am looking forward to being able to stop guessing at what might make me well.
This is where the Body of Christ has stepped in. During this difficult time, my church family has rallied around my husband and I and is helping by providing us with meals. Sometimes, that just means that they’re running by a fast food place and picking something up and running it by, sometimes it means they tuck a few dollars in an envelope to pay for a meal, sometimes it means they make a little extra when they make supper for their family and run it past our house so that we have supper. They’ve done some now, but most of their care will be done after my surgery, when I come home from the hospital and have to stay off my feet and rest.
This care means that I don’t have to worry about providing food for my family. It means I don’t have to think about what to make for supper, or when to start making it, or what I have the energy to deal with. And yes, John could make supper; he’s actually had to take care of supper a lot here recently. But this is a way to help take care of him as he takes care of me, a way to take a load off of his shoulders to free him up to provide for me. This is one thing my church family is able to do to show us the love that is supposed to be what binds us together. This, Beloved, is how we know we belong
to the Body of Christ: we love one another, and we show it in the things we do for each other.
And that’s why this is also hard for me to watch. I’ve talked to people online who need to be recipients of the love of Christ as much as I do now… people who have needed to know His love, and when they reached out, they were turned away. Beloved, it should not be so. Don’t get me wrong, Beloved: I am blessed beyond imagining by the way my church family is taking care of me. I don’t know how I would get through this difficult time without
these dear brothers and sisters to step in beside us and encourage us, pray for us, and assist us. I know I would find a way… but it would be so much harder. I am grieved, though, for all of the hurting ones who need the same assistance, the same encouragement, and are turned away by people who are proud enough to claim the name of Christ, but never humble enough to serve or love in His name, to never BE the body of Christ.
I close with this passage from 1st John 3: 16-18: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
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