Raise your hand if you know what it feels like when a body part you never really gave much thought to suddenly aches and throbs and burns incessantly. Owww becomes your go-to verbiage. Get up: Owww. Sit down: Owww. Take the dog for a drag: Owww.
That teensy torn knee meniscus becomes ALL you can think about.
In the indulgent spirit of Woe is Me, I’d love to continue whining about my achy breaky knee and how miserable 12 long weeks of rehab can be. Instead, I will attempt to uplift both of us from my pit of despair.
When I asked Papa God to divert my attention somewhere productive, here’s where He took me:
“But God has made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it … In fact, some of the parts that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary … So God has put the body together in such a way that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members … If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it” (1 Corinthians 12:18-26, NLT).
Now I realize Paul was speaking in a spiritual sense of the (church) body of Christ, but it applies ever so literally to the human body too.
The body parts that seem weakest and least important turn out to be the most necessary. My tiny knee disc has never received any dignity or honor or accolades. Not even one award. I’ve just always expected it to be there and do its job.
But when it’s not able to do its job, I most assuredly notice. Owww.
So I’ve decided to make a list of unheralded body parts that I’m thankful for.
I hereby praise Papa God for an ingeniously designed body composed of interdependent parts and the amazing harmony among its lowliest and oft-overlooked members: pinkie toenails, digestive juices, teeth that don’t ache, eyelashes (although age seems to be thinning these as other body parts thicken), ligaments that hold every single joint together, mucus, red blood cells …
Say, won’t you join me in adding a few of your own to the list and praising our Creator with me for the least of these?
