In Ephesians 4:16, Paul speaks of "the whole body, joined and knit together. . . causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." The Lord has ordained for the whole Body of Christ to function together just as He created the human body. If our little toe hurts, our whole body aches. So He desires that when one of our sisters is hurting, He wants us to reach out in love to bless and encourage her through her time of grief.
In the Word Jesus has given us several every-day examples, such as the ant, a tiny insect, that works together and is able to accomplish great things. In Proverbs 6, the writer speaks of the ant who provides her meat in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. In Proverbs 30:24, 25 the writer speaks of the ants who are not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer. Last summer I had a huge influx of ants and had to resort to an exterminator. I saw first-hand how determined they are and how they work together to take over an area to get their food.
I recently saw something fascinating. Have you heard of "fire ants"? My knowledge of those nasty little things is limited to an experience I had when living in Texas. At the time of the birth of our son, my parents came to visit to meet their new grandson. We had experienced flooding rains and the grass was higher than normal. When we saw my parents drive up, we ran out to greet them. I suddenly became aware of intense pain around my ankles, and saw these little ants (I later learned they were "fire ants") - squirming up my legs and left my ankles feeling like they were on fire. Their bites left me with red itchy welts for weeks, much worse than any mosquito bite.
In a devotional I learned that scientists wondered how fire ants, whose bodies are denser than water, can survive floods that should destroy them. They learned that colonies form themselves into life rafts that can float for weeks. A Los Angeles Times article explained engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered tiny hairs on the ants' bodies that trap air bubbles. This enables thousands of the insects, which flounder and struggle in the water as individuals to ride out the flood when they cling together. The little guys I experienced must have been clinging together through the floods, and scampered up my ankles. While that experience hurt, it is an example of how the Lord wants us to stand together to help and encourage each other through our times of challenge.
As each of us has experienced, the loss of one's mate, is one of the most life-changing events that we can encounter in our lives. Our entire identity as a wife leaves us when we lose our life partner. Nothing in our lives is the same, whether we have young children to raise, our children have grown, or when a couple suddenly becomes a widow with no family of her own. Our entire lives are drastically changed and it is vitally important for us to find our new life. No one can be of assistance to us as much as others who have experienced a similiar loss. Alone we can sink, but clinging and growing together in the Lord can help us to ride out every storm.
Let's stick together and help each other. In helping others, we ourselves grow stronger in our walk with Christ Jesus.
In Jesus' encouraging love and mine,
Dee
