Flying

My husband and I were walking with our daughter Rachel this past week. We had gone almost a mile and a half through a foot of snow when her little legs just couldn't take anymore. She asked if daddy or I could carry her. I told her that I would carry her a little while to give her a rest and to just relax and let mamma carry her.
I was really starting to struggle under the weight of carrying this 32 pound preschooler through the deep snow after a while, but I didn't let her know it. I kept switching her weight from hip to hip for a little while until I just couldn't keep carrying her. I was really struggling but, worried that she hadn't had a long enough break, I kept pushing on.
She must have sensed the struggle because she suddenly pipped up, "Ok, Mamma. I want to walk again now."..
I was so relieved to hear those words and gently set her down to walk on her own again.
I occurred to me that we could not have made that walk through the deep snow a successful one without both of us sharing the burden; I could not have kept up carrying her for long without falling over from muscle fatigue and she could not have kept walking through all that deep snow without the short breaks of mommy and daddy carrying her.
We all worked together as a team and together got the job done.
Such is the Body of Christ! We can't keep going without excessive burnout unless everyone does their own little part and picks up the weight when someone else is starting to struggle under the load.
It's an intricate dance of give and take, so simple in concept yet profoundly beautiful as we weave our way through the layers of self sacrifice that help embody the Kingdom of Heaven.
After all, isn't this what it's all about? The greatest of these is love. What greater love than taking the burden off one who can no longer bear it?
I believe we are at a critical time in our nation and are soon going to need to pull together and rely on each other more than ever now!