Thankful Day 3 - The Church

Today I am thankful for the church. Many look at buildings like the one above and say, "Hey. It's a church." No. This is just a building where people congregate...

The body of Christ. The arms and legs and mouths and ears and feet and pinky fingers and toes that make up the whole being. The church cannot survive if one part is missing. It's interconnected, living, breathing. It's full of life. It grows. It gets sick. It heals. It wishes and dreams. It mourns and mends. It loves.

The church is not the building we go to on Sunday morning. It's the elderly shut in who gets closer to meeting Jesus as each day passes. It's the newborn babe wrapped in its mother's arms in a hospital room. It's the outcast looking for acceptance. It's the lawyer who seeks justice in an unjust world. It's the teenager who challenges with questions about belief. It's the worship leader who pours their gift before the Lord each Sunday morn and behind closed doors the rest of the week. It's the Pastor who shepherds the hearts of God's people, disciplining Jesus freaks. It's the couple who's been married for twenty-five years and continues to weather the storms of life. It's people. Not a building.

I am thankful to have the privilege and honor to be a member of God's family. Adopted. Grafted in. I belong here. For that, I am truly and eternally grateful.