Cartoonology Devotional 07-30-09

Cartoonology.  There is great theology in cartoons and comics.

We often like to think of ourselves as independent and self-sufficient, but reality tells us otherwise.  Henry Emerson Fosdick said it well.  

We asked the leaf, "Are you complete in yourself?" And the leaf answers, "No, my life is in the branches."

We ask the branch, and the branch answers, "No, my life is in the

root."

We asked the root, and it answer, "No, my life is in the trunk and the branches and the leaves. Keep the branches stripped of leaves, and I shall die."

So it is with the great tree of being. Nothing is completely and merely individual.

There is dependence, independence, co-dependence, and then, there is interdependence.  Interdependence fits the bill the best.  It takes both dependence and independence and weaves them together.  We each stand alone before God, but when we reach across to join hands with others in the cause, we find camaraderie, strength, encouragement and community.

The early church learned this well.  Some have accused them of being like a commune, but nothing is further from the truth.  They were simply a unified group of people in Christ who knew how to share with and support one another in love.    They learned that they could do much more for the cause of Christ together than they could ever do individually.  The result was a common bond that kept them together.  Stand alone and wither away.  Join the ranks and thrive.

Acts 4:32 (NKJV)
³² Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.  07-30-09