How important is it to be in the Body of Christ in treacherous times? Or asked another way: How important are your hands if you take a tumble?

I fell down the steps of the museum the other day in front of 15-20 middle school girls who were on a field trip. I am certain I heard numerous giggles as they pointed my direction.

It wasn't icy, or wet, or dark. It was broad daylight. No one pushed me, pulled me, or distracted me. I had no excuse for falling down the steps. I just did. I performed a series of end'os until I reached the bottom step in an ungraceful heap, all for no apparent reason.

Heading for the parking lot along a flat—very flat—sidewalk, my hands were complaining vociferously about the beating they took to catch my body. They had the bloody, grit-filled abrasions to show for it. While my hands hurt like the dickens, they and I both were glad it was them and not my face.

Hands have a far-reaching job description. They get to hold hands with Dianne, wear my wedding ring, shake hands with people, run the drill, pet the dog, write to you, scratch, plant stuff, and catch falling objects...like me.

Brother Paul writes, “And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you'; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:21). Paul also says, “God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. There are many members, but one body” (1Cor. 12:18). Or as my dad says in his paraphrase, “Elbows are equal to eyeballs.”

Just as my face needed my hands when I fell, we need each other. That is part of the responsibility and privilege of being part of the body of Christ. Jesus sent the disciples out two-by-two, not one-by-one. Evidently, God is serious about us encouraging each other, sharing together, and bearing one another's burdens.