The Honor of Uniqueness

At first glance it looks like any other puzzle. The 100 pieces of Marvel Comic heroes and villains all posed and glaring from the mass produced collage. Yet, something was off. Or was it that nothing was off. There was an uncommon uniformity to it and I had to look close to make sense of it.

The boys had begged for the new puzzle when we were at the Dollar Tree and I wasn’t unhappy to lay down a dollar and tax for something they all enjoy. You do get what you pay for though and a 100 piece puzzle is no exception. The quality isn’t too bad, the box is sturdy enough, the pieces thick and cut well but there was something lacking.

Finally as I sat down beside them to take a closer look I realized the pieces were all the same. Other than the edges, every piece was exactly the same in shape. I illustrated this to them by pulling a couple pieces and interchanging them in odd places where the picture made them stand out as wrong.

The only difference was the color on the front of each piece.

I remembered the song I learned as a child…

“And I was that missing piece of puzzle, it pleased Him so He breathed His breath in me. Created by His hand, to fit the master plan. I was the piece that made it all complete.”

This puzzle didn’t celebrate that idea at all.

Lately, I’ve been learning about “membership” and the importance of being a part of our God designed community. We are “members of one another” Paul tells us in Romans and again in Ephesians. We are created to love, serve, build and work alongside one another. Our muscles would atrophy without proper connections. Our fingers would be useless without the arm’s ability to stretch, bend and reach. Our talents, likewise, are best used when they come alongside the talents of another.

Believers pray for one another, lift each others burdens from miles away by whispering names in faith to a Father who sees both at a glance. This phenomenon works because we aren’t just members of a church, a club or a troupe. We are members of a super-natural community, designed and sent forth by God to live out a super-natural agenda through His super-natural strength. Members of this community are only effective if they are acting on the unique calling the Holy Spirit empowers them to do. Each one different, each one perfectly fitted, equipped and commissioned to a specific task at a specific time.

The world’s system can never produce this. Differences are covered instead of highlighted, mocked instead of celebrated and surgically removed if our two income household can afford it. We are encouraged to fall in line under a knife that cuts out each of us to be the same. Like a dollar store puzzle, we are none of us needed to fill a specific space, we are only asked to hold up a face that fits nicely in the picture.

God, in His vast and infinite knowledge, is never so general. He designed each piece, directs each opportunity, and fills voids with ornery stutters, runners with limps and little girls with ears that stick out too far. Every awkward personality and ill placed birth mark had the critical eye of the Designer behind it and it was released to the display, not because of it’s beauty, but because of it’s value.

We are His, warts and all.

Nothing is offered this life that doesn’t have the potential to glorify Him. Nothing.

It is this honor of uniqueness that qualifies us to serve each other. In this super-natural community, we will see great things happen. As we work together, building and admonishing one another toward His purposes we will see the Body of Christ raised to perfection. A common vision achieved through the corporate unity of individual gifts given freely, under His direction and in perfect harmony.

This is glory. This is grace.

This is His Kingdom at work: that we give, receive from, serve, learn from, build, accept, enjoy and love one another as He loves us.