Are you a clone?
The other day I was preparing to have 18 high school and junior high students over to my house for dinner. This is very unusual for me – cooking for large groups of people, that is; or even entertaining large groups of people. This is definitely out of my comfort zone.
Of course I waited until about 3 hours before they got here to start preparing the food and cleaning the house. Isn’t 3 hours enough time to prepare 3 pans of lasagna, bread, veggie, find 18 clean dishes (wait, do I even HAVE 18 dishes?), and clean my toilets and first floor? Evidently not. Approximately 1.5 hours before they were to arrive I realized that I didn’t have enough time to get everything done. I needed more ME – at least 3 more of me to get the job done well and on time.
Do you ever feel that way? You just wish you could clone yourself?
Two of our 3 kids were home and so I asked one to do this and that for me. My requests were returned with heavy maons, slow movement, and eventually a disappearance act. It was one of those times that you think you’re better off just doing it yourself because of the frustration level that comes from such resistance.
Child #2 was then called upon. There was still resistance, but much less – probably because I shot out verbiage like: “HEY! I don’t have time to listen to you complain. I need help. Just do what I ask you to do and do it quickly. I will tell you what to do, and you will do it, get it? I need you to be my hands and feet!”
As soon as those last words shot out my mouth I thought about Jesus Christ calling us His hands and feet (His body). I immediately wondered if Jesus feels the same frustration when He asks us for help. And I wondered: "How many of His requests to us are met with sighs, groans, slow movement and finally a disappearance act?"
In the bible, Christ followers are called Jesus’ body! The bible even talks about the different parts of the body and how we all play different roles that are equally needed and valued.
That makes me ask myself: "Does Jesus need us to help Him? Does He have so much work to do that He can’t do it all on His own?" Does He need more "ME's"? That is a theologically debatable topic!
Obviously we know that Jesus is God and so has all power and can do anything anytime He wants. However, the way He has chosen to operate in the world to get His work and will done is through us - people. We’re like His hands and feet. That’s why He calls us His body.
I just wonder if He has ever said to us, “Listen, I don’t have time for your complaining, there is a lot of work to be done and I need you to be my hands and feet!”
What a privilege to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ! You have a special role you know; so do I. What a blast to discover what it is and then do it (without moaning).
“Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.” I Corinthians 12:27
Good!
ReplyDeleteI have heard people say, "God doesn't need me" and it comes across as falsely humble.
Whether he "needs" us or not, he chooses us, like you said, to be His body. He is the head yet the last time I checked, my head can't do what my hands and feet can do.