GET CONNECTED with our CHURCH FAMILY … responding to human need

Saturday, May 2

Daily Devotions are published Tuesday-Saturday during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Devotion
By now you probably know what PPE refers to—Personal Protective Equipment. This includes wearing face shields, gloves, goggles,gowns, head covers, masks, respirators, and shoe covers. If I’m a patient with COVID-19, my first question to the hospital attendant wearing PPE would be “Who are you?” Are you male/female, young/old, smiling/frowning? I desperately want to talk to someone who looks human!

For the nurses who wear this sterile equipment, this must be painful as well. How can they fully show compassion using only their voice with no grasping of hands or empathic faces?

Unfortunately, our voice is not enough. The scriptures explain how God designed our whole body to help us communicate. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the interrelation of the weaker and stronger members of our body. And experts agree that our eyes, body gestures, and facial expressions convey as much as our words.

Furthermore, God designs us this way to build community. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Corinthians12:26). Despite our desire to be independent, we alone cannot be capable Christians. I will rejoice the day we can finally shed our PPE and return to a physical church with visible people all helping one another serve the Lord.

Prayer
Gracious God, by our confinement we see more clearly how you created us to be a connected people. For now we cannot shake hands or give a reassuring hug. But give us the spirit of community to help us with those suffering directly and indirectly from the virus. Amen.

Jack Hess