Something I've been thinking about.
You know how Jesus says that he is the bread of life, that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then you know how he created so easily two very powerful reminders, with bread and wine, saying this bread is my body, broken for you. And then what Paul says, that you are the body of Christ.
So, all this has pushed me to think about what it means that Jesus is the bread of life, and how I am a part of his body. And it's changing the way I look at the bread. It's quite possible I have eaten more bread in the last 4 years of my life than all the twenty+ years of my life before living in South America. There's a greater sense of what it means that he is the bread that gives life, give us our daily bread, etc. All that makes much more sense to me.
Now I've been thinking a lot about the Body of Christ. Who He is and how he transformed us into His Body. We represent his body? We ARE his body? I have begun to look at this bread we share as a way to not only remember him, but to ask me, "How am I a part of this body? What do I have to offer? Am I offering it to Him and to others?" If I come to his table alone, I've missed the point. Jesus, the image of our invisible God, is extremely relational. And my heart longs for relationship with him, and with others, as he gives us ways to be together, like the sharing of this bread, being his body (can I say it like that?). The bread now helps me to see the Body differently, to look into the eyes of the other members, to offer myself to them, to love unconditionally. WE are his body.
