On Dec. 10, 2022, shortly after 3 p.m., I watched as a community came together to support one of their own – a young person locked in a battle with cancer. The community rallied together to raise funds needed to help with costly treatment and care to combat the disease.  

Well over 100 persons came out to support the fundraising efforts. They purchased raffle tickets, and many raised funds by having their hair cut for the cause. There was camaraderie among everyone in attendance. 

I observed several people getting haircuts, and notably one person raised more than $15,000 to have their hair cut, while another raised $550 in under two minutes getting their hair cut as well.

As one of my brothers in Christ was getting his hair cut, it dawned on me that he barely knew the young person he was helping, but that did not matter to him. What mattered was that a young person was in need and this man had the means to meet that need. They were not family by blood, but for him, they were family by the Blood of Jesus. 

Members of the body of Christ will find they are not alone in any fight, struggle, battle, or difficulty in life. On Dec. 10, the community came together, and the Word of God came to life as written in the Old Testament: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!  … The Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore (Psalm 133, KJV); and in the New Testament: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many … But God has put the body together… so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it (1 Corinthians 12:12-27, NIV).

Indeed, no one in this family of believers in Christ fights alone.

Rev. Dr. Christopher L. Thompson is pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Okatie.