We have been meeting together on Tuesday nights for a year and a half now to study the Bible and pray. Along the way we have lost one of our members to an untimely death; we have dealt with severe marriage problems, financial struggles, and health concerns; we have added a new baby; we’ve lost a husband and rejoiced at a baptism. Among us, we are in our teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and seventies. We are married, divorced, widowed, and single moms. Some have been Christians for decades, two have come to Christ within the last couple of years. We are one in Christ. We are the church.
We each bring something different to the table. Our life experiences are diverse, and our struggles are varied. But never have I experienced such honesty, such prayer, such true Christian love as I have with this group.
I think our little group is a picture of what Christ intended the church to be. We are in each other’s lives and business. We confess and we hold each other accountable. And we love no matter what. It’s easier, I think, to have that sort of climate in a small group of people than it is with the whole body. Our little group is just one “body part” of the whole. I don’t know how to make intimacy and accountability happen among the rest of the church. But I can keeping clinging to my dear sisters as we strive to be a witness to the world by the unity and love that we have.
Jesus on the night before he died:
“I am praying…for all who will ever believe in me….I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one – as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and you love them as much as you love me.”
- John 17:20-23
1 comment:
I love you too, Sarah!
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