Climbing a picker’s ladder to the top of a peach tree in late August in Michigan, when the morning sun has just begun to warm the fruit and dry the dew, one breathes the essence of peach to the exclusion of all else. A lone peach doesn’t achieve that effect, but a tree’s-worth does.
A single individual can experience the healing Christ, or aid another in need of it. But a church-worth of spiritual thinkers and doers, simply and humbly gleaning from the master Christian’s example, can shift the norm of thought from a material basis of living to see, feel, and express more of the divine character. It’s why we have church.
Working together to provide a public spiritual home can challenge unity of thought, and stretch our trust in Love’s means. But our willingness to patiently and selflessly accept and resolve these demands to more fully express the utility of Truth and Love for humanity brings growth in Christian character. Such spiritual growth inspires individually and collectively, as must have been the case for the early followers of Christ Jesus.
