They tell the story of the fellow trying to sleep with his feet hanging out the end of the bed, so cold that they have turned blue. Someone asked him why he didn't draw them up under the covers and his reply was, "I'm not going to put those cold things in bed with me." The story is funny because it is so ridiculous. Our feet are so much a part of our body that what happens to them happens to us. We recently had this demonstrated to us in a very real way. A heavy object was dropped on our big toe and the pain it caused was felt throughout the body. Later as we lay in bed trying to sleep we could feel each beat of our heart by the throb in our big toe. We were painfully aware of the truth of Paul's statement concerning the body when he said "whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it."

We had not given our big toe a second thought for years and suddenly it became difficult to think of anything else. Paul makes a beautiful comparison of the parts of our physical body to being parts of the body of Christ. Paul shows how each part of the body is necessary and how one part must not say it does not need another part. Even "those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are necessary" says Paul.

Paul's elaborate analogy is for the sole purpose of teaching us that there ought not to be any "schisms in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another." If we really love the body of Christ as we love our own body we ought to "nourish and cherish it, even as the Lord the church." We know what Jesus did for us. We know what we each do for an ailing part of our body. This, says Paul, is the way we ought to care for those members of our body who are spiritually sick. He tells us that "we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

This is exactly what we do when our big toe hurts. We don't normally hop around on one foot holding the other with both hands, but when that toe has an infirmity that is exactly what we do. It doesn't make much difference either how busy we think we are. We still take time out from whatever we are doing to do our little one foot dance.

Now the problem is we are not usually as sensitive to the infirmities of others as we are to our own. Those that were with us were not as concerned about our big toe as we were. After all it was our toe that was hurting.
We all need to cultivate a caring attitude for the infirmities of others. God has built into our body a nervous system so that we automatically care for the part of our body that is injured. Now we need to learn how to become sensitive to the hurts and feelings of others so that we can nourish and cherish them in their distresses.

James tells us "that this is pure religion, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keep ourselves unspotted from the world."
Sometimes what we do for the other is really a very small thing to us but very important to them. A visit, a kind word, just reaching out a steadying hand when one is hopping on one foot can prevent a fall. We need to learn to think of others and try to do for them as we would have them do for us if we were in their situation. It truly is the thought that counts but the thought will be demonstrated by a deed, for as faith without works is dead, so thoughts without actions are dead also. A cup of cold water isn't much but if it is given in the name of a disciple, Jesus says the giver will not lose his reward.

Let us each learn to care for the body of Christ as we do for our physical body that there be no "schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. Now ye are the body of Christ."