I’m always excited by the gifts the people of my church impart on us.  We have people who share their wonderful musical talents, those who have great organizational skills, many who cook and organize food events, folks who share their talent of sewing by making quilts and some with artistic talents who make cards, many who help with worship services in various capacities, those who can fix things that are broken, those who have technological skills to maintain our website, run the audio and visual aspects of our services, some who are “big picture” folks and who are “detail” oriented. We have writers who blog, gardeners who keep our grounds looking beautiful and those who have the gift of counseling others in their times of need. There are people who tutor the young and minister to them at the same time. I know there are others with gifts they give that take place behind the scenes and we don’t even know about them.

In Romans 12:4-5, the apostle Paul tells all those who live in Rome and are called to be holy people, these words. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others.

I see these verses at work in the church. We all have something to offer God. We all have some God-given talent we can share to praise the Lord and worship Him with the very gifts He has provided for us. None of us is better and more important than the other, but all of us are necessary to make one body that works together for the purpose of showing others God’s unconditional love. We can use what skills we have to provide for others and show them the love God instructed us to share. That is our purpose here on earth, to love others as we have been loved. Just think what kind of a world this would be if everyone used their God-given gifts to show love for others. Thanks be to God for the gifts we have to share in His love!

 Patty