I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about tables and chairs. And how people are like them. Except, of course, that most people have only two legs…Thanks, friend, for this great analogy…:-)
There are similarities between the table and the chair. Both are generally made of similar material. Both have four legs. But they have different functions. Different purposes. They are used for different things. Each valuable and necessary in their own way.
The table likes being covered with good things to eat that draw people together. And food is necessary, right? It thrives on the excitement of conversation and company around it. It serves to display and hold the food that people come there to enjoy.
The chair, on the other hand, serves as a place to come and sit and rest. It is the practical one, steady and sturdy, that can be counted on to be there with its strength and support.
Each serve their purpose. But sometimes they don’t understand or value the purpose of the other. The table wants the chair to be a table and the chair wants the table to be a chair. Somehow they think that they should be the same, each thinking that their way is the only way.
But picture this…
A table set with beautiful linens and filled with scrumptious, aromatic food. There to serve others with its appeal to the senses. But the table is void of chairs. Would people stay at that table for long if they had to stand, if they couldn’t sit and enjoy the feast before them?
Or the chair that sits by itself, strong and sturdy and very functional. Ready for anyone to come and find reprieve from being on their feet all day. But no table is in sight. The chair can’t offer the food that the person who sits in it will eventually need.
The table and chair need to work together, to recognize each other’s worth. They are a team. They work best when they work together, not separately. They make the picture of people enjoying a satisfying meal complete.
Each of us is a table or a chair. Each of us is important to the big picture. This is true in every single one of our relationships. We were created to complement each other and fill in each other’s gaps. To work together and enjoy our similarities AND our differences.
Let’s enjoy the feast by celebrating each other and recognizing that we need each other’s strengths and abilities to support us in our own…
1 Corinthians 12:14-20, 27 – 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…Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
