At the risk of opening up another ketchup dialog, I am returning to the egg discussion posted time before last.  One further image remains in my mind.  A carton of eggs all nicely placed in their little boxes in nice, neat rows.  Not one is touching another, and the buffer around them is meant to keep it that way for their safety (After all, we don't want any broken eggs in our group).

All the eggs in their own little world of boxes and in nice little rows is not my idea of how the community of faith should be functioning (and what functioning is that anyway?)  Whereas this is a good way to transport eggs, it certainly is not a good way to function as believers.  We are called to be part of one another, not just associated with one another in the box of a common faith.  We are called to bear one another's burdens, not just be vaguely aware of them.  We are called to rejoice together, not just try to find our own happy place.  While all the eggs in a row may look good, they are not good until they are taken out of their nice little boxes and brought together for some other purpose, which will eventually mean breaking out of their shells and mixing in with other ingredients. 

There is not much benefit to all the eggs in the boxes in their nice little rows.  And I don't think the goal of gathering eggs is to see how well and how long we can keep them that way.  At some point the real goal is to be used, to become more valuable, to be given to a greater purpose, or to provide some wonderful expression of being an egg.  

And what about the broken eggs in our groups, the ones that came broken when we opened the box.  Aren't we careful about that not happening before we bring them home.  At the store we examine them.  If we find a broken egg we set aside the whole box of eggs.  After all, the broken egg is a sticky mess in that box; it can cause other eggs to be glued to the box, and we are not about to use that egg less we get sick anyway. 

Unless we are careful, this can be some of the same things that can happen when broken people come into our group.  Thank God He is a great redeemer and the restorer of the paths of life.  He does not despise the broken hearted, or the wounded spirit, but sends His great love into their lives and heals and makes perfectly whole.  But in the meantime, "the group" may have a broken egg or two in it.  How we respond as a group when one of us is broken is very important.  We are called to love them in their sticky mess, carefully and patiently pray and minister them through to health and wholeness, and at all times look beyond the mess and see the value beauty of one that Christ died for.  

Or we could just discard them, ignore them hope they go away soon.  If it is bad enough, we may want to disconnect from the whole group and go find another box of unbroken eggs to be a part of (not that we will be able to find such a thing). One way or another brokenness ruins our nice little, very carefully constructed and tidy little box.  Our comfort zones are interrupted.  Life can get pretty messy.  But love overcomes all of that, and we must be willing to bear with one another until the victory is established.