The Body of Christ

There are no cute pictures for this post or funny stories about the comings and goings of my 3-year-old.  No, this post is a reflection, probably 30 years in the making, on the Body of Christ.
Growing up in the church I always heard about the Body of Christ.  Even at a young age I knew people weren't speaking of the physical body of Jesus, I knew it was something bigger, deeper than that.  As I got older I began to understand that being a part of the Body of Christ carried with it a great repsonsibility to be His physical presence in the world.  What I'm not sure I realized, maybe until recently, is that being His physical presence is so much more than helping in a soup kitchen, volunteering at church, or lifting a helping hand for a neighbor.  While those things are important and a large part of what the Body of Christ is to do, it's not the full extent of it.
Many have heard the "Footprints" poem speaking of how God picks us up and carries us through the hard times.  Recently I have begun to wonder if God doesn't use the Body of Christ to do some of that carrying, to be that physical presence in tragic situations, life altering situations.  I'm not talking about cooking a meal for someone who has lost a family member, I'm talking about truly walking with them through the tragedy.  Jumping into the muck of life and death with another person so that he or she does not have to bear that burden alone.  This is surely not something you can do for just anyone, but I feel like it's something we run from even when it involves our closest friends and family.  It's something that takes an enormous amount of energy, emotion and suffering on our part.  It is allowing our heart to bear a burden with another and sometimes break for another.  It is being in the middle of the sadness and devestation, listening to a cry that can only come from the depths of someone's soul.  It is bearing the burden of a lost child with a devestated parent, the burden of a lost spouse with the one left trying to figure out how to live as a widow(er).  It is bearing the burden of illness, addiction, financial ruin, and the list goes on, in such a real way that it truly alleviates some of the burden felt by the person experiencing the pain.  It is sitting in the house, the hospital, the rehab center, the church regardless of how uncomfortable or emotional it makes us.  It is knowing when to say nothing, because there is nothing you can say.  It is knowing that you may have to stay all night.  It is holding someone who is fighting mad or dropped to their knees in devastation.  It is remembering that the pain doesn't leave in a week or a month or a year, and being there when it rears its head.  It is being Jesus with skin.  Someone to touch, to hold, to listen, to SHOW the depth and breadth of the love of God, as best as we can.  This is the Body of Christ, this is what we are called to do.