Held By Nails

 

We got our 15 year-old a chicken coop for her birthday. 

I don’t know many 15 year-olds who would be ecstatic about getting a chicken coop for their birthday, but a brand-new-chicken-coop-of-her-very-own is definitely on my daughter’s list of “best birthday gifts ever.” That afternoon, as we put it together piece-by-piece, I kept thinking about the church. 

Before we started to assemble it, my husband and I spent two days just making the foundation.   Most people wouldn’t spend that much time on a foundation. Most people would want to start building right away. But no matter how solid and well-designed a building is, it’s useless if it’s not built on some type of foundation to give it stability. Then, once we began to assemble it, we had to be very careful to follow the directions step-by-step. If we tried to hurry by skipping steps, then none of the other parts would have fit together correctly.

Each part had a specific purpose. There were big parts and little parts. Parts that braced, and parts that shielded. Parts that covered, and parts that held together. Parts you could see through, and parts that you couldn’t. Parts that looked the same, and parts that didn’t. Parts that were easily breakable, and parts that weren’t. But one of the things that stuck out to me the most, was that no matter what size the part was or what it looked like, they were all held together by the nails.

O brothers and sisters, let us not focus on our different looks and functions, but let us focus on the nails of our Lord that connect us and hold us together. 

(Acts 2:23,24) He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.

(Col 1:17,18) He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.

(Rom 12:4,5) Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

(1 Cor 12:17,18) If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has arranged the members of the body, every one of them, according to His design.

(Eph 4:15,16) Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.