(read this as if Andy Rooney were talking...)
I've heard people talk about the "Power of One." I'm sure that is a reference to unity and how much can be accomplished when everyone is putting forth a collective effort toward the same goal. I can recall chanting "We're number one!" after winning our high school football championship. Essentially, we were bragging to the rest of the world or anyone who cared that we were pretty full of ourselves. Then there's that song which sings, "One is the loneliest number." Kind of depressing, when you think of it. I imagine a crowded restaurant of colorful, laughing, flirting couples eating lobster and drinking champagne while a black and white, solitude character sits in the corner sipping soup and water. We are told to be of one heart and mind (which feels like duplicity to me) to go one way when navigating the concept of community; in other words, common unity. In golf the greatest challenge is to get a hole in one while keeping one as a whole appears to be the greatest challenge in leadership. For something that appears to be so simple just by being the smallest of all numbers, ONE can be so complicated.
(Okay... Andy Rooney is no longer speaking...) Let me ask, "Is one really that small?" Perhaps... What we see as tiny, God sees in a much different way.
Without getting into a numerology discussion, where we debate the number of God being 7 or 3 or the value of 40, I present to you, when it comes to what is important to our creator, He places a lot of weight on 1.
God created Adam (man) and saw that it was very good but being alone was not, so... out of man's side God created woman so the two could become 1. If that wasn't obvious enough, God wanted His people to know, "The Lord your God, is 1 Lord... 1 faith, 1 baptism, 1 God and Father... that they may be 1 as you and I are 1... name under heaven which man can be saved..." You see 1 is actually a very big number!
We on the other hand we do not like 1. If I have 1, I soon want 2. And after I'm bored with 2, I'll get a 3rd. and before you know it, I'm having a garage sale to get rid of 1, 2 and 3, to buy 4 and 5! Why? Because, 4 and 5 are new and 1,2,3 are old and broken and no longer exciting! Which is why I am so thankful God isn't like us. In fact, He is a collector and a restorer. He makes things new and he treasures each 1. You and I, although different and unique, are priceless and in Gods eyes. You are 1 of a kind. I am 1 of a kind. Together we are different parts of 1 body yet we are perfectly placed!
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and... God has put each part just where He wants it. 1 Corinthians 12:12,13,18b (NLT)
Just 1 more thing to think about.
"WHERE are you?" Hiding in a corner, sipping soup as a small person, all by yourself being alone? Or part of one, big body... connected, colorful, different, happy?
