What Good Is One Puzzle Piece?

One of the grandchildren brought me one puzzle piece the other day. I am not sure exactly what she wanted me to do with it, but I found myself attempting to explain how one puzzle piece is not good for much. It's true. It does not matter how pretty, or how intricate it looks — there is just not much you can do with one puzzle piece. It needs the rest of the pieces to make a picture. That is the way puzzles are designed.

Christians are that way too. The Christian life was never intended to be lived in isolation. In fact, one of the great attractions of following Jesus is that you live in community with other believers. So when we are not in community with other believers, we are like that puzzle piece. We are not going to function the way we are supposed to function. And if God's plan for His people is like a puzzle ... we do not want our piece to be missing.

Christian community is where we find support, encouragement, and accountability. The Christian family — the church — takes care of each other. We provide for needs, we provide resources to help strengthen weaknesses. We show up at weddings, funerals, hospitals, and living rooms. We are there for each other. We rejoice together, we cry together, we pray together, we sing together, and we remind each other that we are not alone.

This is one of the reasons Christians meet together. We get to know each other. We demonstrate our unity around the Communion meal as we remember together the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are inspired to love God and His Son Jesus. We express our love to each other. We are motivated to do good works for the glory of God.

If you believe in Jesus, but are not connected to a body of believers, I want to encourage you to find your place in the family of believers. If you want to visit more about this, join our blog at www.hopeforlife.org. If you are looking for a group of believers near you, I can help you find one. Write me at steve@hopeforlife.org.