By David Faust
Do you realize that you own factories, warehouses, transport systems, and power plants? It’s true! In fact, although you probably haven’t given them a single thought before today, you would literally die without these valuable possessions.
I’m talking about the cells in your body. An adult human body contains as many as 100 trillion cells—microscopic building blocks that vary widely in size and function. Medical News Today describes cells as “tiny packages that contain minute factories, warehouses, transport systems, and power plants.” Cells connect and communicate with each other, forming vital tissues and organs that keep our bodies alive.
The Wondrous Physical Body
I believe our bodies are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) because God designed them that way. So, I’m not surprised when a scientist observes, “In terms of compressed complexity, cells are without peer in the material world. . . . And there is likely far more complexity still to uncover.”
Those words appear in The Miracle of the Cell, a book by Dr. Michael Denton, a medical doctor who also holds a PhD in biochemistry. He writes, “Where the cosmos feels infinitely large and the atomic realm infinitely small, the cell feels infinitely complex.” The extraordinary complexity of a living cell supports the concept of intelligent design. In biblical terms, “God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20).
The Wonder of the Body of Christ
The same powerful, purposeful God who created the universe joins individual believers together in his church. The physical bodies we inhabit, and the spiritual body of Christ (his church) are both marvels of design and blessings to be appreciated. Both are vulnerable to injury and disease. Both need exercise and nourishment.
Just as cells in the physical body perform a variety of functions, individuals in Christ’s church have a variety of roles to play and gifts to use.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).
Spiritual gifts are God’s to bestow and ours to deploy.
Every part of the body of Christ—even the smallest and least noticeable cell—has a valuable role to play. Yet, healthy cells don’t exist for their own sake; their job is to contribute to the overall health of the body. In the church, it’s tempting to “cell out” in one of two ways: (1) either we undervalue our gifts and wrongly assume they don’t matter, or (2) we overvalue our gifts and act like they are all-important. The fact is, other Christians are our teammates, not our competitors. Their gifts are neither inferior nor superior to ours.
Robert Hooke, the scientist who used a microscope to discover cells in the 1600s, called them cells because he thought they resembled cella, the “small rooms” where monks lived in monasteries. God doesn’t give us gifts so we can hide in our own small rooms, but so we can all do our parts to build up the body. Let’s not “cell out” and act like our gifts are insignificant—or like they are the only thing that matters.
Personal Challenge: How will you use your spiritual gift(s) this week to build up the body of Christ?
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David Faust’s new book, Not Too Old: Making Your Later Years into Greater Years, was released April 10. It is available from College Press and Amazon. To read an article/excerpt from Not Too Old, click here.
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