Have you ever seen a Leatherman Tool? There are many different models but this is the version I have carried in my pocket and used almost daily for over 15 years. When I get dressed in the morning, I always put on my wedding ring and grab my wallet, cell phone, pen, & Leatherman. I have the wear marks in my jeans to prove it!

I had a Swiss Army knife as a teen but prefer the Leatherman overall with its pliers. Admittedly, my Leatherman is outdated at this point, though it still functions well. It's been replaced by many other even more impressive versions (that have other options like saws and scissors as my Swiss Army knife did).

As the picture shows, it's no ordinary pocket knife but a multi-function tool. I use the knife regularly for opening packages. I've used the 4 screwdrivers on hundreds (thousands?) of occasions instead of wasting time going to the garage and digging through my messy tool buckets. The ruler gets regular use also as well as the pliers. Each of the tools has a special use that is different from the others.

For example, the awl is handy to punch new holes in leather belts or "drill" starter holes in wood for small screws, etc. The awl doesn't work too well turning screws, however. The screwdrivers are very handy for screws big and small, but they don't work very well opening boxes. The pliers are amazingly handy, but they don't do a good job measuring like the ruler does. You get the point. All the tools are different, useful, and important in their own unique way. But the best part of all about multi-function tools is convenience. All these tools are joined together in one small device that I can keep in my pocket, to use whenever needed. And the Leatherman is pretty much indestructible, as I've seen from years of use and some abuse (yes, I've driven nails with it before, but not very efficiently!).

In a way, the Leatherman tool reminds me of what the Bible says about God's church. A church is composed of believers--people who lovingly obey the Lord Jesus Christ. They are all different, and each one is able to serve God in a special way, because God has given them all different gifts or various abilities and opportunities for serving Him and helping others. For example, God has given some people the ability to be good teachers, others encouragers, others leaders, while still others excel in other ways such as building, serving, comforting, etc. Each person has a different part to play, and each one is needed. It wouldn't be any good if I needed to use the bottle opener on my Leatherman but discovered that it was missing for some reason. In the same way every member in a congregation is important. It's sad when someone goes missing because then their abilities cannot be harnessed for the good of the whole.

I'd like to read a related lengthy section of Scripture from I Corinthians 12:12-27:

"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'; nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."