Sometimes we have difficulty in understanding how we as a body are to be as one (echad). If we could just all learn to work together, what great things we could accomplish! Once there was a great entertainer who was asked to go abroad to perform for our troops in World War 11. He told the people that he had a very rigorous schedule and if he could make it, it would only be for a few minutes and then he’d have to leave. Since the man was such a big star, the people thought any minutes they could get from him would be better than none. So it was agreed he would come and do only a very few minutes of comedy for the soldiers. When the time arrived, he went up to the stage and performed his act, but he didn’t leave as planned. The crowd loved him and the applause continued.

Soon the few minutes had stretched into forty five minutes. He finally left the stage, at which point the director came to him thanking him over and over. A bit confused though, the director asked him why he had stayed so much longer than he had agreed on. The entertainer replied, “well I did have to go, but come over here and I’ll show you why I stayed.” They went to a corner of the stage where they could see the front row of seats. “Now look at the front row,” he said, “and you’ll see why I stayed.” In the front row of seats sat two soldiers, each of whom had lost an arm in the war. The one man had lost the left arm and the other man had lost the right one.

Together though, they were able to clap, and clap is what they did. They clapped loudly and cheerfully with one hand of one soldier with the other hand of the other. These were two people who realized that alone they couldn’t do very much, but together they would do great. This so touched the entertainer that he not only did his five minutes of monologue, but had extended it solely because of these two soldier’s unity. Now if these two could achieve this, what could the body of believers achieve if we would get in one accord? We are into too much of “I’m my own man” kind of thinking. Then we have those who are too proud to accept help when they do need it. So we really have to “hand it to them” at the concert, they’ve found the key that most of us are lacking, it’s called “unity” with your brothers and sisters in the body.