I’ve been sitting on a porch facing the Pacific Ocean for hours in the past five days. My overalI impression is a vast expanse of blues, greens, jungle, water, sky–a panorama of “oohs” and “ahs.” This morning an air plant on a tree popped into my field of vision. It had been there all along but I had failed to see it.

I often see the “big picture”; the details elude me–a “can’t see the trees for the forest” kind of person. I know people who are real detail people; they “can’t see the forest for the trees.” Each way of seeing has its gifts and failings. As I enjoyed the spectacle of the air plant and noticed others clustered on the bark, I thought of the 1Corinthians 12 passage:

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be….If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body….Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Later in the morning, our hosts Eric and Leslie, Andy and I celebrated Communion. The epistle reading was 1 Corinthians 12–a grace-full synchronicity. The reading affirmed for me that being a part and a whole body are important for total being; that seeing the details and the big picture are necessary for total vision.

1Corinthians 12 passage from www.lectionarypage.net.