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The body

Sophie - October 22, 2009

Last night we learned a new song in choir practice. I'm an alto, so we almost always sing harmony, and usually that's a bunch of fun. Altos are a pretty lively bunch, you know.

But last night's new song? It was really, really difficult, so our worship pastor asked us to go through all the parts individually before we tried singing the song together. When the sopranos sang their part, it sounded okay - but nothing special. Same for the guys. And when the altos sang our part a few minutes later, it sounded a little awful, honestly. It was just weird. There were lots of big jumps, lots of strange, dissonant notes - and after about the third time we'd worked through our part, the girl sitting next to me laughed and said, "We sound like a bunch of bullfrogs."

She was exactly right.

But do you know what? After about ten minutes of each section of the choir working on their individual parts, the neatest thing happened.

We sang all those separate parts together.

And y'all, I got goosebumps all the way down to my toes. All of the bizarre-sounding notes were transformed. The whole song was absolutely beautiful. Shockingly so. And I thought, "Oh. That is the body of Christ right there." Nothing special at all when we're doing our own thing - but when we work together for something - or Someone - bigger than ourselves? The indescribable happens.

Even in a bunch of bullfrogs.

"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be." - 1 Corinthians 12:14-18