basket of eggsred

This morning I cried with joy. God took me on a journey into the wonder of our own wonderful bodies. How fearfully and wonderfully we are made! (Psalm 139). I visited the intricacies of the kidney and how there are special cells whose whole job it is to measure if the oxygen levels in the blood are too low.

When their alarm bells go off, they send out an urgent, fleet messenger (a hormone) to deliver a message to the bone marrow to speed up its production of red blood cells; those divinely woven red swimming baskets that carry the Breath of life along the river to every cell.

And I thought of His Body and how sometimes the breath of God is dangerously low in its hallways, and somewhere, hidden from sight, there are little humble single souls whose whole grand calling is to weigh and measure, weigh and measure the measure of the Breath of God within His temple. And their arrow prayer sends angels to wake up the basket makers tucked up snugly in the red blankets of bone marrow – "the shelves are empty, get weaving! Get working". Red baskets, woven fine; winged baskets that Breath can line and fill like a feathered nest of eggs as they fly through the chambers of the heart; like a vast free-range egg assembly line, delivering breakfast Breath at the door of every sleeping cell. How marvelous are Your works, O God! They are too wonderful for me to fathom – in wisdom Thou hast made them all! And I pause to worship, with tears...

Never consider your own part in God’s plan insignificant or irrelevant. You are a vital part of His fearfully wonderful Body of living stones. You may never grace a stage or perhaps even step outside of your front door, but what you do for God and His Kingdom profoundly affects the whole Body. You are a Life-bringer. A resuscitator. A telegrapher tapping in the night, delivering messages from Headquarters throughout a Body at war with invisible foes.

You may never receive thanks or applause or honor this side of Heaven for your contribution to His wonderful intricate plan, but every soul that breathes easier tonight does so because you measured and saw and weighed and heard, and faithfully prayed and sent messages triggering alarm clocks in the right places; waking up troops to man their battle stations. Your words trigger the release of Life in a Body beset by death and onslaught.

When you called out for the Spirit to come, your call was heard and acted upon and somewhere far from your sight, someone kneeling in a foreign land felt the wind of God again. And wept for joy. And in a room where darkness cloyed the senses, a shutter opened and the gentle breeze of Jesus stroked a tired heart... Just because you do not see with your own eyes the results of the prayers you lift towards the Throne, does not mean that you did not effect ground-breaking change and breakthrough and refreshing for the saints.

He hears. He moves. He sees your fruit. Can roots ever know the effects their faithful transfer of life-giving water and nutrients has on all they feed that grows above the ground? It's dark  - and quiet - where roots lie working. And yet, they keep drawing up and sending forth, day after day, night after night, relentless in the rhythm of their servanthood... Grow not weary of well-doing, I hear Paul say. The harvest comes. Keep on.

May you be filled with joy as you faithfully live all He designed you to be in His Kingdom. You are precisely placed, fearfully and wonderfully equipped with all the gifts and skills you need to glorify Him. The fragrance of your yielded life gifts the whole Body, if only they paused to reflect...

1Co 12:18 But as it is, God has placed and arranged the limbs and organs in the body, each [particular one] of them, just as He wished and saw fit and with the best adaptation.

Selah