Members One of Another

Romans 12:4-5

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

We often think that the little things we do, the small lives that we live, have no great impact on the world.  And perhaps we don’t… most people will not be like a tsunami, altering an entire shoreline in just a few minutes of time.  But… that great and powerful wave is made up of individual drops of water.  Without tiny drops of water, there is no tsunami.  Without small, individual lives, there is no great and mighty force.  When one person unites intentions with another person… and then another… and then another… the largeness of their impact on the world multiplies.  Together we are strong. We may think that our one drop is of no consequence, and certainly our one drop is not the one that did the ultimate deed – because the ultimate deed is not done by any single drop.  All are needed together.  If one defects or strays or stays behind lazily, then others may follow, as is the course of things in life, and then what?  The strength is diminished, the impact altered irrevocably.

And even one tiny drop alone has an impact – though it may not be noticed by the world… or even by the drop itself.  One single drop dislodges one single grain of sand on the shore – and the shore is changed.  One person, fully alive, can move a person sized island.  For even one atom, well directed, can change other atoms.  At the atomic level, this is change profound.  Just so, one person’s thought, well directed, can change other persons’ thoughts.  At a personal level, this change is likewise profound.  It should never be taken lightly.  One person’s thought aimed outward at another can be as useful as clean energy… or as destructive as a bomb.

As we are all connected one to another, like members of one body, we each have the ability to affect another and, so, the whole.  It takes the entire human body to willfully move one finger – the brain, spinal cord, nerves, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and even the respiratory and circulatory systems are needed for this movement, the immune system to allow the body to be healthy enough for such movement, and the bones to hold together and the skin to stretch.  Not to mention the imagination and will to inspire and initiate the movement of that one little finger.  One tiny and seemingly insignificant act of kindness to another human being is not only good because it may inspire another such act – it can actually change the entire day of that one person, allowing him or her to be open to receive something of great impact that he or she would not have been able to receive otherwise.  It can be life altering.

A small, seemingly menial act, like helping a man clean up the coffee he spilled himself, can remind that man that there is kindness and gentleness in the world, that he isn’t left alone to fend for himself in a cruel and hostile world, as he had been feeling.  And then, when his estranged wife calls him an hour later, hinting again that she may like to talk things over and try to heal their relationship, he will not be defensive, like he usually is, and he, refreshed in believing in goodness without even remembering why, will be moved to respond gently and generously.  And the one who helped the man clean up his spilled coffee that day will never know that a family was eventually healed and children returned to a stable and loving home.

One drop in an ocean.  One member in a body entire.  This is the truth of one, small human life, profoundly powerful.

Christina Chase