Have you ever noticed that different people draw out different character qualities from you? Some elicit a keener sense of humor perhaps, and others stimulate you to conversations of greater depths. One offers you a safe place for vulnerability and honesty, while another stirs your intellect. This one makes you laugh along life’s journey, and that one looks back on it with you through the nostalgic lens of friendship. It takes many people to put all of our facets on display. In turn, we do the same for others—calling forth a part of them like no one else can. This is a marvelous aspect of life.
The apostle Paul once wrote, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”1 We all have our own role in the body, for “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”2 Then here is the amazing thing: each one of us shines forth a facet of Christ’s being like no one else can, for we are each uniquely made, uniquely gifted, and uniquely positioned to display Jesus wherever we are. From one gleams the joy and peace of Christ to a seeker; through another, patience and kindness flow in affirmation for the downtrodden. God’s goodness and faithfulness find voice through the witness who has experienced the same, and Christlike gentleness and self-control declare personal worth to those who question their own.
There is no need to doubt our Kingdom impact in the world, nor to envy that of another. Each of us displays a facet of Christ, and collectively His body is seen through all of us. Be you—your newly created you3—for Christ shines uniquely through you.
Father, thank You for creating me exactly the way you did, and for redeeming me in Christ and making me new. Be glorified—every facet of Yourself—through the body of Christ, to which you have so graciously made me a part. In His name and by the power of the Spirit I pray. Amen.
1 1 Corinthians 12:27
2 1 Corinthians 12:18
3 2 Corinthians 5:17
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Paul Nordman—Author 