Solomon tells us that there are four creatures that are apparently insignificant, but yet are extraordinarily wise. This is one of God favorite devices in telling His stories. Those four creatures are the ant, the rock badger, the locust, and the lizard (Prov. 30:24ff). Despite their smallness, they provide food and shelter for themselves, showing up in unexpected places, and they do so without the apparent resources to do so. But it still happens.
Locusts swarm together, ants work together, rock badgers can make their homes in towering cliffs, and lizards can make their way into kings’ palaces. In God’s economy, the sum is routinely greater than the sum of the parts. Birds wheel in the sky as though they were one organism, and schools of fish can function the same way. The mystery of small entities cooperating is actually a staggering mystery.
In the same way, local churches can appear to be insignificant, far away from anything that matters really. Our observance of the Supper here now can look like a collection of people in a room eating bread and drinking wine. But keep in mind that every Lord’s Day, all over the world, millions of men and women, boys and girls, are all doing the same thing—worshiping God, hearing His Word, and partaking of these elements. At the end of the process, the entire world will be shaped and discipled by this reality.
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If we could see the church as she actually is, extending throughout all history, encompassing centuries, spanning continents, growing into her full strength, not by by-passing her weakness, but by embracing it, we would all marvel at the greatness of God’s wisdom and glory. We are invited to see that reality by faith right now. God is at work, and God is at work in the way He usually goes about it.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.