God Made Makers

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The Rest of the Body

The church is the body of Christ. We repeat this often. And when we do, we say that we are meant to be Jesus’ hands and feet, carrying us to the place we’re needed and reaching out to touch lives.

These are good metaphors, but what if we embrace the body metaphor more fully? Why only be Jesus hands and feet when the body needs eyes, ears, and mouths, and more profoundly, needs a heart, a skeleton, muscles, skin, and clothes? Hands are (usually) less useful without an arm, a shoulder, and a torso.

The men and women who serve the most immediate need do wonderful, invaluable work. If any word I write or speak ever seems to diminish the importance of such people, blame my choice of words. I can’t overstate the value of people on the ground, doing real work at the source, touching the lives of the sick, the poor, the weak, the unreached.

We need those people, and we probably always will. Jesus told us that we would always have the poor. I do not challenge what we already do right; I want to do even more!

Made to Make

I believe this: The Kingdom of God will be full of technology. The Kingdom of God will be full of things made by man, but not by fallen man. The storehouses, workplaces, palaces and cathedrals of the Kingdom of God will be built and perfected by the hands of men and women who are fully restored, right with God, and communing with the Holy Spirit.

God made makers. He wants us to use our crafts. I do not believe, cannot believe for one second, that the desire to build, grow, create, discover, and invent is part of the Fall. It is part of the Restoration.

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” - Revelation 21:5

God makes new things, and we are the body. We are the appendages, extremities, tools with which he makes things. We must let Him use us, and if He has given us a gift, He has shown us to which part of His body we belong. Who are we to deny it?

Modern Technology

In Jesus’s day, the tools of the trade were boats, sandals, and a staff.

In another time, the tools of the trade were horses, cathedrals, and hand-copied leather bibles.

Today, the tools of the trade are airplanes, websites, and cell phones.

Less has changed than it might seem.