Hands have a far-reaching job description. They get to hold Dianne’s hands, wear my wedding ring, shake hands with potentates, run the cordless drill, pet the dog, write to you, scratch, and catch falling objects like me. Brother Paul writes, “And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.”

Although in all honesty, upon landing in a heap, I think my head and hands both were saying to my feet, “Why did you do this to us?” But fundamentally, if my feet weren’t doing the best they could to get me back to the car, I would be writing to you from the museum where I fell instead of the house where I’m sitting.

Paul goes on to say, “God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. There are many members, but one body.” Or as my Dad used to say in his paraphrase, “Elbows are equal to eyeballs.”

Just as my face needed my hands when I fell, we need each other. God designed our bodies to work in a complimentary fashion, and He designed the body of Christ this way as well. We need each other, and sometimes we need each other in extraordinary ways.

That is part of the responsibility and privilege of being part of the body of Christ. That brings me to friendship and togetherness. More on that next.