Devotions with Nell Ritchey

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” I Corinthians 12:12

As I age, I have discovered that various parts of my body occasionally cry out for attention. I’ll be sitting quietly on my sofa, and get a twinge in my foot, as if it’s saying, “Hey! I need help down here!” And although my foot is not usually my first priority, at that moment it is.

As believers, we are all part of the body of Christ. In  I Corinthians 12, Paul speaks about this eloquently. We don’t all have to be eyes or ears, or feet or hands – the big, major things that we are all aware of. But Paul says this doesn’t matter. We are ALL part of the body, and we ALL matter to God.

For years I have jokingly referred to myself as a hair follicle in God’s Kingdom. I used that analogy because that’s a part of the body that doesn’t really get much attention or (I thought) do the really important stuff in the body. But recently I said that to my daughter-in-law, who we call our family nurse, and she began to explain to me in great detail some of the things that the hair follicle does (in addition to growing hair). It was pretty amazing, and although it humbled me, it also proved my point. Not one member of the body of Christ is expendable. None is unnecessary. I’m sure even the appendix has a purpose, although I don’t know what it is. My son lost his spleen following a car accident a number of years ago. You can live without a spleen. Most of the time he doesn’t even think about it. But it does reduce his immunity to infection, and this year, that has been pretty important!

If you have devalued yourself because you feel you don’t contribute much to the church, or you feel you are “less than” because of your personal challenges, please know this: God loves you. He values you. And he calls believers everywhere to value each other. Every single one.

God bless you!
Nell