I have a couple of illustrations for you. Paul says,
“If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?”
and then he says “If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?”
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being 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 stop being 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 placed 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
We have heard and read the scriptures for many years. Because of this, we understand the meaning that each body part has a specific purpose and all work together as a whole. Paul is comparing the church and the talents of all of its members to the complete working body.
I have a sad illustration of this concept along with an inspirational story. There is a girl named Tracy, who lived with her mother, Mrs. Mary Lily. Because Tracy is blind, her mother totally babied her and took care of her every need for her entire life. After Mrs. Mary Lily passed away, that left her stepfather, Al, to continue the cycle. Unless things have changed, Tracy is the perfect illustration of an unrealized talent in the church. Full potential is often never realized because human will and thought processes squelch that talent. On the flip side of that coin, we have a historical figure that I am sure everyone has heard of – Helen Keller. She was born with the ability to see and hear. At 19 months old, she contracted a disease, likely scarlet fever or meningitis, that left her deaf and blind. It is interesting that she was able to conquer both of these roadblocks to become an educated author and lecturer. What I find most interesting is that, even though she was totally blind, she actually developed the coordination to write phrases and sign documents.
Given all that she had overcome in life, do you doubt that she could develop the ability to write? There is a book, copyright 1904, entitled “The Story of My Life” about Helen Keller. That book contains her communications from probably hundreds of letters. Most were to family and friends, and there are communications with Oliver Wendell Holmes. The most impressive letter is one “to St Nicholas” where she includes her autograph in order for “the boys and girls who read St. Nicholas to know how blind children write.” My thinking was that she visualized the letters and wrote them out free-hand, when in actuality she used a grooved board which aids in creating the letters and keeping them spaced and straight.
