The Shin Bones Connected to the Knee Bone

     In today's world it seems some of us are having a hard time understanding it takes each of us to make all of us complete. The old spiritual song "Dry Bones" aptly describes how it takes all the bones in the body connecting together to create a whole, complete body. Take away one of those components of the song and the body does not reach completion. It would go something like this, "Well the toe bone connected to the foot bone, foot bone connected to the heel bone, heel bone connected to the ankle bone, ankle bone connected to the knee bone?? Well now wouldn't that make a funny looking person? We all know and understand that it takes a shin bone to come in between the ankle and the knee, yet in some circles the world would be a better place without shin bones.
      Hey, this isn't just me doing my elementary anatomy lesson, consider the words of the apostle Paul as he wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Let me paraphrase, it's going to take a whole village to get this thing done! 
     When I meet a person I don't see race, I don't see religion, I don't see a different political party, I see a flesh and blood person. I see a person with a purpose to fulfill in life. I see a person that may be the very person that makes the shin bone connect to the hip bone in my own life. What would the world be like if we had no shin bones, well for sure we would all be about a foot shorter than we are and we wouldn't be reaching that top shelf at the grocery store! It takes all of the bones in our body to make it function properly and to do the job it was created to do efficiently. 
      Throughout the Bible we are instructed to love thy neighbor as thyself, and in 1 John 4:20-21 the author presents a thought provoking concept as he wrote, "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister." As the song "Dry Bones" concludes the final line says it all, "Now hear the word of the Lord". Have faith and stay the course, you may be the only God someone sees today what will they see? 
Coach Carter