The Runaway Heart

Several years ago, a Bible study for children used a little book called The Runaway Heart. I can’t find it anymore but I think it’s a good “story” for us all. It goes something like this:

The heart was doing its work of pumping blood around the body when it looked around and thought, “I am the most important part of this body. Without me, the body can’t live. And they don’t even realize it. Look at the rest of them, thinking they are so important. I think I will just run away.”

So the heart ran away. It rolled down a hill, enjoying its freedom and thinking about how much the others would miss it when they realized it was gone. That would show them! Without eyes to see where it was going, the heart ran into a big rock and couldn’t go any further. It sat there pumping for all its might, but no blood was coming into it to be filled with oxygen and pumped out to anywhere else.

It just sat there beating, flub-flub, flub-flub. As it sat, it wished that it could see where it was, or hear any sounds. It wished it had the lungs close by for company. It wished it had hands to feel its pulse beat. It wished it had a voice to call for help, but it just sat there beating, feeling lonely, and to tell the truth a whole lot silly for having run away in the first place.

Suddenly gentle hands came and picked up the runaway heart, cleaning off the dirt, and placed it back where it belonged. The heart flubbed for joy; blood was flowing through it again. It was back in the body, doing it’s important work so that the rest of the parts of the body could do what they did best.

Each part of the body has its function. Each function is important. Without each part, the whole body would not be able to do its work well. As Paul tells us, that is the case with the Body of Christ as well. Each of us in the church has a gift, a function. They are all important, vital even. It doesn’t matter if that part is big and flashy, or small and behind the scenes. It takes all the parts to make the whole Body!

I give thanks for all of you and the work you do to make the whole body of Christ Crossman function. I give thanks that Christ Crossman is a part of the whole Body of Christ, serving in our place. I give thanks for Dulin, and Galloway, and Calloway and Mt Olivet and all the other parts of the Body of Christ for doing their work for the Body in their own place.

What is the work, the gift you are called to do in the Body?