Every Person Matters

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26

At the dentist’s office I asked the dentist to allow me to look at the crown he was about to place over what remained of one of my rear molars. It struck me that the crown was a small thing for the expense, trouble, and job it must do for years to come. Yet without that crown I would be in a great deal of trouble, both from the pain of my old worn tooth, and the inability to properly eat food to nourish my body.

God wants us to realize that every person in the body of Christ matters. Some people seem more important than others. Some more public, visible, and others less so. Nevertheless, in God’s eyes every member fits into the body of the church and is necessary. Just like a little tooth is vital to our overall well-being.

You do not see or even notice the toes on your feet. You take them for granted. Yet, stub one of them, or get an ingrown toenail, or otherwise injure a toe and you cannot walk properly much less run due to its pain. Similarly, our individual pain and suffering also affects the rest of the Body of Christ.

By God’s amazing grace our human body can keep going for decades, with some people living past 100 years old. It is an amazing biological machine. But illness, disease, injury to even the smallest portion of the human body will stop it in its tracks.

We often believe that individually we do not matter. Life seems to go on around us oblivious to our existence. Yet not one person on this earth would be here if it were not a part of God’s plan.

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be. Psalm 139: 13-14, 16

You matter. You always will. God made you for a purpose and a plan. Though it may seem like the world could go on without you, God makes nothing and no one in vain. God has a plan for us all. 

The next time you have a toothache, or stub your toe, or smash a finger, consider how important that small part of your anatomy is and what a big difference it makes. Then magnify its importance a thousand times and you merely begin to comprehend your value to God and your part of the Body of Christ!

Prayer: Dear Lord, we feel so insignificant and often an island unto ourselves. Help us to never forget how much we matter to You and what You went through Jesus to secure a place for us in Your Body. Amen.