True Friendship

A teenage boy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had cancer and was in the hospital for several weeks to undergo radiation treatments and chemotherapy. During that time, he lost all of his hair. On the way home from the

hospital, he was worried-not about the cancer, but about the embarrassment of going back to school with a baldhead. He had already decided not to wear a wig or a hat.



When he arrived home, he walked in the front door and turned on the lights. To his surprise, about fifty of his friends jumped up and shouted, "Welcome home!"' The boy looked around the room and could hardly believe his eyes-all fifty of his friends had shaved their heads!


Wouldn't we all like to have caring friends who were so sensitive and committed to us that they would sacrifice their hair for us if that's what it took to make us feel affirmed, included, and loved? Friends like that are hard to find in today's world.


When we become Christians, we are adopted into an extended family of love and support-the church, the body of Christ. The Bible teaches us in I Corinthians 12 that when one member of the body hurts or experiences joy, the whole body shares in that pain or that joy. We suffer together, and we rejoice together. That's what it means to be the church. We are a community, a family-real friends.


When we act this way, we are doing for each other what Jesus Himself did for us. Jesus loved us so much that He did more than shave His head. He went to the cross for us. He gave up His life so that we might live.




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. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.


-I Corinthians 12:14-20 (New International Version)


Dear Lord we pray that we will work together in a manner that is pleasing to you. Help each of us be the part tha makes the whole body. In Jesus’ name, amen.