Day 3: We are the Body

“If we are the body, why aren’t his arms reaching, why aren’t his hands healing, why aren’t his words teaching?” (If We Are the Body, Casting Crowns)

We are the Body.  

I love the Body of Christ, and I am experiencing the Body of Christ in full action right now.  Haiti January 2015.  

In so many ways.  Only in the Body of Christ, can 16 people come together from 4 different states/provinces and start unifying and gelling together within 2 days.  Of course, we all have our quirks and idiosyncrasies.  (As tempted as I am to share some of them from this team, I will resist that temptation.)

Only in the Body of Christ, can 16 completely unique people use their specific God-given personalities/gifts/abilities for a common purpose.  Only in the Body of Christ can 16 people people come together and share tears and stories of how they are seeing the Spirit of God move.

That common purpose is to “be” the Body of Christ to the world that Jesus is “dwelling” in.  Specifically, for us on this trip, it means being the Body to every man, woman, and child, that God sets across our path for this week in January 2015.  It means looking in the eyes of each of these individuals and seeing that every one of them was “fearfully and wonderfully made” by their creator, has been rescued and redeemed by Jesus, and is hungering to know Him.  But they are also hungering for other things along the way…for human touch, and their “daily bread” too.

But the mystery is that while we are the body of Christ, we also are touching Jesus.  

Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  As we fill buckets, and hold orphans, and talk with elders, we are coming into contact with Jesus as well. Not only are we the conduit at these times for others to come into contact with Christ, but amazingly, they are the conduit for us to know Jesus more fully and to share in His sufferings.

But I think the greatest comfort for me in the midst of this week is that the body of Christ is bigger than the 16 of us on this trip.  I say this because there is the part of me that is crushed knowing that the half hour I spent holding and hugging this or that child just wasn’t enough.  But what I take hope and comfort in is that as we are flying out next Monday, another team will be flying in to take the baton and continue the work of the Body.  They are the Body of Christ as well.  And together, with them we are the Body of Christ.  Along with our churches, and sponsors, and family and friends at home who are supporting this work in their own way…with their prayer, and financial support…and their specific God-given personalities/gifts/abilities as well.  

We are the Body!

--Russ Peterson