Someone lost her job this week. And someone lost her child. Someone is packing up her child to leave home. And someone is counting the days till they can be together again. Someone rekindled a special friendship. Someone didn’t get the call she was waiting for. Someone is longing for a little one to come home for good. Someone made a commitment to healthy good habits. And we share and we listen everywhere we go, as women of grace, and I see how we are all intertwined– strengths and weaknesses and hopes and disappointments reaching out and holding each other up as we walk through this life. And the Apostle Paul says we are parts of one body, our differences making each other strong as we work together.

It is the count-down week toward Easter Morning, and we remember each day what Christ did in the last week of His life…such an eventful week leading up to the day that would change the world. But the disciples don’t bother to record the little Real Life events of that week: breakfast shared at dawn under spreading fragrant trees, how the birds sounded and the way the wind blew, walking together on dusty roads and how this one joked and that one was quieter than usual, the way dusk fell and the noises of the city faded into night-time, and how the oil lamp flickered soft shadows on the walls. It’s easy to forget that Jesus and His friends were real men, people who shared the little moments and the ups and downs of real life. Like us. And God calls us The Body of Christ and somehow as we live out our lives together He is present with us– He that was broken for us in that week, is making us whole, using us to help each other get through this world in one piece.

Because the Kingdom of God is all about restoration, putting the pieces back together till everything has been made new and God can look at what He has made and pronounce it good, as it was in the Beginning. “‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4) And the restoration process begins at the cross, with the very real death of flesh and bone, the sacrifice of a perfect Lamb  to purchase righteousness for everyone– re-creation spilling out from this one improbable place, the old things passing away and being made new in His blood and resurrection power. “…This is My body, which is broken for you.” (1 Corinthians 11:24)

This is the Body of Christ, us in our good days and bad days living out our faith honestly before each other, in flesh and bone and blood, and it is raw and gritty and often difficult. He knows because He lived it too. In this Easter week as we walk toward the cross, we remember and give thanks, offer ourselves to one another…all these broken pieces being made whole in Him.

“… we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)

“The way you find the threads to suture up the fractures of your heart — is to let your frayed places be tied to someone else’s frayed places….Your story matters — because God is using it to mend the world, to change the world.” (Ann VosKamp)