A Big Blue Rubber Band

It was a really nice rubber band. It was blue, had about a six inch diameter, and was hanging off the pastor’s wrist … I wanted it.

My rubber band was beige, had about a two inch diameter, was squeezing my wrist, and slowing down the blood flow into my hand.

As we came into the service this AM, we were each given a rubber band. We didn’t get to choose which one we got. Some got big ones, some medium sized ones, and there were also different colors.

I had not realized that everyone had gotten one, so I was kind of proud that I had and wore it on my wrist even though it was a bit too tight. At a point in the service, the pastor asked if everyone had gotten a rubber band. He then held up his wrist, showing us his rubber band, and asked if anyone else had gotten one like his. Like I said, it was nice, it was blue, and it was big. There were about twenty people who had a rubber band like his and he had them stand up.

By now I was comparing my rubber band to theirs, and I was feeling slighted. I also noticed that there were nicer colors. I wasn’t as happy as I had been. I probably even asked myself “Why them? Why not me?“ The pastor then said some folks had a larger role to play than others, and that gave them more accountability. He then used “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” to try and make those of us who were immature enough to be jealous of the “big rubber band people” to feel better. I didn’t feel better.

I was thinking how proud I would have been if I had been given a big rubber band, how special I would have felt. That is when he told the “big rubber band people” they shouldn’t feel proud of having big rubber bands, because they didn’t pick them, but had arbitrarily been given them. Now I really didn’t feel better because I was proud just thinking about if I had gotten one. Now I’m thinking “I’m not good enough to have gotten a big rubber band, I didn’t deserve one, and God is giving me a secret message with this whole ordeal.” I guess some people can handle big rubber bands and some people can’t.

I quietly took the rubber band I had been given off and put it in my pocket. At least my hand began to feel better.

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't. (Ro 12:4-6 MSG)