Together in Christ – Every Piece Matters

Today at our opening worship for the school year at Grace Lutheran School, River Forest, IL, I talked about Legos. And about my borderline OCD. Earlier this year, our youngest son took it upon himself to dump out all of our well-sorted Lego sets into an undifferentiated mass of building blocks. Needless to say, this did nothing to keep my nerves at a calm level. The kids would play with them still, on occasion, crafting creative inventions. But mostly, our kids still like to follow the directions and build the sets, recreating Batman’s confrontation with the Joker, putting together race cars, and making elaborate scenes out of Lego Friends (“me and my girls, we’re best friends forever!”).

So, my wife and I took it upon ourselves to sort through the bricks and put the sets back together. Looking back, had we realized the amount of time and care this required, we probably would’ve just told our kids to deal with it. But, over several weeks, we got it done. Meticulously, we found each and every piece and put it with the correct set. After all, every piece matters, whether it’s something obvious like Batman’s helmet or a hidden piece supporting the chassis of a dump truck. Every piece matters.

How true this is for our life in Christ! We are all different. Some of us stand out in public ways; the gifts of others are not always as obvious or public, but they are no less important. St. Paul writes, “So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another” (Romans 12:5). Like a Lego set, the Body of Christ is not complete if even a single piece is missing. But God, in Christ the Shepherd, has promised to dig through the pile and find each and every one of us, reconnecting us to Christ’s body and to one another through the grace and gift of baptism. We all have a part to play, living out our unique giftedness for the sake of the whole body. We each have a role in living out the gospel for the sake of one another – to love, to grow, and to serve together.

My hope and prayer for our schoolchildren is my hope and prayer for all of us. That we will always know God is looking for us; that we will always know God has already found us; and that we will always know that God has gifted us individually in majestically unique ways and calls us to share our gifts with and for one another. Our God takes the time to find us and to put us together. Together in Christ, as a matter of fact. Thanks be to God!

And if you’re wondering, this is what the Body of Christ looks like at Grace Lutheran School!