Today's Devotional
I have always been fascinated by jigsaw puzzles. My kindergarten classroom was full of puzzles – wooden puzzles, floor puzzles, cereal box puzzles. It was great fun to watch the children as they turned pieces over and around, trying to find a fit. Often a child would try to pound a piece into place. That never worked because each piece has its own special place.
Isn’t that just like us as members of the Body of Christ? We all have our own special place. We cannot be ‘pounded’ into a place where we don’t fit, nor can we ‘pound’ someone else into a place where he or she doesn’t fit. Don’t you think God is pleased when he sees us carefully fitting the pieces into place?
In addition to finding our own place, perhaps one of our responsibilities to Christ is to help others find their places. I am reminded of a story of a pastor leading a group of children in a game of Giants, Wizards and Dwarfs, a large-scale version of Rock Paper Scissors. When the pastor yelled out, “Giants, Wizards or Dwarfs” and the groups wildly assembled, he felt a tug on his pant leg. A small child looked up at him and said, “Where do the mermaids stand?”
He answered, “There are no mermaids.”
The child said, “Yes there are. I am a mermaid.”
He thought for a moment and then said, “The mermaids stand right here by me, the King of the Sea.”
To me, this story illustrates the fact that the church needs to be open to all those who are different, who do not fit the norm, and who do not accept the available boxes and pigeonholes of the church.
— Susan Anderson, Director of Lay Servant Ministries, NTC
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