(If you are a reader that does not read from Facebook, I just returned from a trip to see my grandkids, and posted exclusively there the last five days, as I always have problems with my mobile blog app. I’ve added the posts to my blog this morning, so if you’d like to catch up, you’ll find them preceding this post in the order in which they were written.)

I’m one of those quirky people who likes airports. I like to get there early, so as not to be rushed, and get started settling into my vacation mentality. When my airport experience is on the backside of a trip to see my babies, that extra time is usually spent getting myself together after a tragically emotional goodbye. However, this time, Lilli didn’t cry, which made it so much easier. I think she’s finally understanding that I always do come back, although I hate that she’s getting it because she’s getting older. (Stop with the growing!!)

After I said goodbye, and got through the security line of exactly one person: ME, I found a seat at Chili’s and ordered some dinner. I always glance around the Tampa airport to see if I spot anyone I know, since I used to live there. Strangely, I rarely do. But, this time I noticed a man who looked very familiar. He walked past and I lost sight of him, but I thought and thought, trying to figure out from where I knew him.

Later, as I was waiting for my boarding group to be called, I saw him again. He was boarding my plane! Then it hit me. I didn’t know him from Tampa. I knew him from Fort Worth! He was the man who runs the coffee shop located right in our very own office building! It was a “small world” moment.

I shook my head at it, as I had just received a private message from a friend from high school earlier in the day. I had commented on a photo posted by a young woman, a friend of mine, which also included what looked like my high school friend’s son. I couldn’t believe it when I found out it was! They are apparently doing a music project together, and my high school friend was messaging me, asking me about the common connection.

I’m always astonished that the old “six degrees of separation” thing is really pretty true. We are all more closely connected than we realize, and, now, with the advent of social media, the trail of connections plays out right on the screen in front of us. This world is big, but I think God intended for us to live it as small. He considers us as one body of many parts, and it’s important, I think, for us to behave as such, understanding that we are not islands unto ourselves, autonomous in the world, but we are all part of each other, dependent, to an extent, on others to fulfill the purpose of the Body, as God intended.

Take a look around, and not just the next time you’re at the airport. You’ll be amazed at how closely connected you really are to your fellow man. Revel in it, because when you do, your breath will be taken away by what He can accomplish.

“You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-18 MSG