The Handicapped Body

1 Cor. 12:14-27

The flesh does not resemble the bone; The bone does not look like the blood; the eye is not the ear, nor the foot a hand. There are many members of the body, and each is different, they all differ from one another; and yet, what would the body be without one member? Handicapped. Though they do not all look like one another, some larger, some smaller; some are odd shaped, while others are quite handsome in appearance, and yet they are all members of one body; all useful, and all needed. God has ordained it to be so, how then can we decide what is most important, and what is less significant? That is not up to us to decide. So it is, my friends, in the spirit; are we so crass as to exalt one part above another? Are we so proud that we will undermine that part which we see no value in; which we find to be less desirable? Though the feet have a lower place than the head, (and all the body is subject to the head), they remain a foundation for the rest of the body. Though the arms and hands hang loosely at our sides, they function as the workers for the body.

I once saw a man that was born without arms. He had to use his feet to do those things he would do with his hands and fingers. Actually, he became quite proficient in making due with what he had. Even though he had learned to use his toes to grasp things, and even to hold a spoon and feed himself with, he still was handicapped; he was lacking that which made his body complete. He adjusted to his circumstances, but think how much easier his life would have been had he not lacked the arms and hands that he needed; when a part of the body is missing, though another part may take up the slack, the body is handicapped--it is incomplete. So it is in the church; so it is in the spirit. No matter how insignificant you may feel you are, you have a place in the body of Christ. You are important. Without you, the body is incomplete, it is handicapped! Take your place, not that of another, but that which was given to you, and function where the Lord has put you.