Connected

When I was a child I had many dolls.  My favorite was a Cupie doll named Marcie. I don't know where I got that name really, but it seemed to fit. Marcie became a part of my family on my fourth Christmas. Through the years she stayed with me always. She had a soft plastic stuffed body, but a hard plastic head, legs, and arms.  As her head, legs and arms became detached from time to time, my mother would sew them back on as best she could. All the patching was not really a pretty sight to see. When I was about ten or so her left arm detached and was never sewn on again.  There was nothing left to sew it to. Marcie just couldn't be patched up anymore. 

Now about thirty-seven years later I still have Marcie and her arm. I still get her out from time to time and wonder how she survived all these years.  I sometimes wonder how I survived all these years.  I think of all the happiness she brought when she was whole. The purpose of a doll or any toy is to bring joy to a child. Marcie truly fulfilled her purpose faithfully and well, even though she received a lot of hurt and injuries along the way, even though she had trouble keeping it all together at times.

As I thought of Marcie's soft body, I knew if it had been made of the same type of plastic as the head, arms, and legs, the doll would have been so much more stable and sturdy.  If the body hadn't been soft the arms and legs would probably have never detached.  Another possibility also would be if the doll hadn't have had the hard head, legs, and arms. but soft ones, Marcie would have probably been able to keep her self intact.  The hard head was just too much weight for the soft body.  The soft body was just too mushy to support the head.

As I thought along these lines, soft bodies, hard heads, body parts detaching, being sewn on, patching things together, being hurt and wounded, fulfilling a specific purpose when whole; I thought of Christians, the body of Christ.  There has to be a balance in the body of Christ. There has to be a good support system in place. If the body is too soft, too mushy, it does not properly support the head. 

Also if we are hard headed Christians it is very difficult to stay connected to the body of Christ and fulfill our intended purpose, which is too be His arms(hands) and legs(feet) spreading the gospel message to the entire world.

For years Christians have tried to keep it together and patch things up in a way that's not so pretty and doesn't really glorify the body.  We have overlooked the true problem and just tried to piece things together man's way instead of God's way.  We were named Christians, which means Christlike. We need to make sure the name we wear fits the body.  We need to make sure one day God will look at each of us and tell us that we fulfilled our purpose well even though we received a few war wounds along the way and some time had trouble keeping it all together.  We will survive if we all strive toward a  common goal to fulfill our purpose and support our Head. Our Father will keep us connected,  knitted together if we allow Him to sew us with a common Spiritual thread, which is His blood and His breath flowing through us.