“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28 NKJV)

I crochet blankets for newborn babies. And over time, I end up with various bits of balls, of various colours and weights of yarn. Last month as I was looking at all these small leftover balls, I decided to crochet a multicoloured blanket, just to see how it turned out. After all the yarn was good and I hated to waste it.

To my surprise and delight it turned out quite lovely and very colourful.

This crocheting project reminded me of how God seeks to knit His people, His Body the Church, together from every country, generation, status, colour, culture and creed. For in Christ, He declares us as one. We may live thousands of miles apart. We will never, on this side of heaven, ever meet the majority of the rest of this family of God. We are various colours. We hold a variety of positions and jobs. We speak different languages and have different traditions. We even believe differently in regards to specific issues of our faith. And yet we all have one thing in common: Jesus Christ, the Author and Perfector of our faith, our Lord and Saviour. Jesus Christ, whom all of God’s family have committed their hearts and wills to, through believing that He is indeed the Son of God, who came to earth as a babe, born to the Virgin Mary, and was crucified upon a cross for the sins of the world and on the third day He rose again and then ascended into Heaven to sit beside the right hand of God, the Father. And it is in Him that we are now one.

And in our oneness God desires that we become woven together into a beautiful, colourful, creative blanket. A blanket of His love, forgiveness, mercy, grace and unity that brings comfort and hope eternal to a lost and grieving world.

So, today, as we go about our business, let us also consider our brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever they may live or whatever they may do, or whatever they may believe in regards to the specifics of faith that may be a little different from what we believe. And let us lift them up in prayer that each of God’s people may be blessed with His truth, guidance and wisdom that comes from His Holy Spirit. May we choose to not dwell on our differences but upon our oneness in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour. For in Him, we can do all things that He calls us to do, including being a unified, glorifying Church that draws the world to the One who makes us all one, in Him.

Prayer: Father God, we thank You that in Christ Jesus, we are one, whether we always act like one, or not. Speak to our hearts today to recognize and embrace this amazing and powerful truth, that we as Your servants might prayerfully lift one another up in our oneness rather than dwell upon our differences, so that the world might see Your mighty power of unity at work within us and be drawn to the One who makes us one in Him. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Lynne Phipps
Atlin, BC Canada