This Christmas has been unique in many ways, the most notable probably being our “living room” setup.  This will likely be the only Christmas where all the pictures have a construction zone backdrop: Thermax and strapping on the walls and ceiling, scaffolding being used as double-decker chairs, etc.  Everyone enjoyed the different scenery, however, and we had a wonderful day together.

     Each year, we decorate our Christmas tree based on a particular theme.  This year, since we have been doing a lot of building, we chose a building theme: edification, or building one another up.  Though you can’t really see the decorations in the picture, they are all in the shape of houses and each has a verse about how we are built up.

     Now the “living room” has moved back into its original location, and the construction has recommenced.  Dry walling was next in order.  Twelve-foot sheets of sheet rock are not easy to handle, and with the ceiling being slanted, the scaffolding planks had to be put at an unusual angle, but the boys managed beautifully, and we now have a large part of the dry walling done. 

     It is so encouraging to see the work progressing so well, but even as I watch, I am reminded that it is not by one person alone that this project will be accomplished.  Each worker is invaluable and has his/her own specific place in the larger picture.  And so it is in the body of Christ also.  “For the body is not one member, but many.  If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?  And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?  If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?  But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” I Corinthians 12:14-18