For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, [being] many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Romans 12:4-5
Brother Hammer served as the chairman. The other members of the tool belt informed him that he must leave, because he was too noisy. But brother Hammer said, “If I have to leave this carpenter’s shop, then brother Gimlet must go too. He’s insignificant and makes a very small
impression.” (A gimlet is a small tool with a screw point, grooved shank, and a cross handle for boring holes).
Little brother Gimlet arose and said, “All right, but brother Screwdriver must go also. You have to turn him around and around to get anywhere with him.”
Brother Screwdriver turned to the other tools in the belt and said, “If you wish, I will go, but brother Plane must leave too. All of his work is on the surface; there’s no depth to what he does.”
To this brother Plane leveled his terse reply, “Well, then, brother Saw will have to
depart too. The changes he proposes always cut too deep.”
Brother Saw complained, saying, “Brother Ruler will have to withdraw if I leave, for he’s always measuring other folks as though he were the only one who is right.”
Brother Ruler then surveyed the group and said, “Brother Sandpaper doesn’t belong here either. He’s rougher than he ought to be, and is always rubbing people the wrong way.”
In the midst of the discussion, the Carpenter of Nazareth walked in. He had come to perform His day’s work. He went to the bench to make a pulpit from which to preach the Gospel to the poor. He employed the screw, the sandpaper, the saw, the hammer, the plane, and all the other tools. After the day’s work was over and the pulpit was finished, Brother Saw arose and said, “Brethren, I perceive that all of us are laborers together with God.’ 0, how many Christians are just like those tools, fussing at each other because we think someone does not do things just the way he should. There was not an accusation made against any one of the tools but that was absolutely true; yet the Carpenter used every one of them; and there was not a place where He employed them that one of the others could have served as well.
