Parts

My wife, the other day, announced she was going to the store and asked me if I needed anything. I replied that I needed a new spray can of jock itch spray.

She got home with the other groceries she bought and handed me a can of athletes foot spray. She told me that the pharmacist had told her that it had the same active ingredient and, therefore, should be interchangeable. She further added that if that wasn’t acceptable to me, I could return it myself.

I told her that regardless of what the pharmacist told her, I was not using athletes foot spray in place of jock itch spray!  I prefer a product especially made for the geographic area I was looking to treat. She thought I was crazy. Maybe I am. I’d have to ask a bunch of guys to find out so that’s probably not happening either. Then I remembered this verse…

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 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.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” - 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 ESV

I’ve always loved the concept of generic medicines because I know that they are exact copies of the brand name medicine usually at a much less expensive price. I feel the same about store brands of commodities mostly.  In fact, there are lots of things that I just don’t care whether I get the name brand or a copy.

There are also some things, like ketchup (please don't judge me) that I insist on the brand name product (the one that has 57 varieties). When we were dating, my future in-laws had me over for dinner. One of the dishes required a little ketchup.  I was pleased when they put the aforementioned ketchup on the table. After the meal, when my future wife and I were alone, she asked me what I thought of the meal. I told her it was good but the ketchup was off. I suggested that maybe it was going bad. That’s when she confessed that her dad had combined ketchup bottles of two types. To this day, I believe that they didn’t disclose that to me to check my ability to distinguish.

To be fair, both of these examples (jock itch spray and ketchup) are preferences on my part and I doubt I’d be seriously harmed if I didn’t get my preference. But God made me with my preferences and maybe they are for his glory.

Thank God that we all have different gifts. The world would probably grind to a halt if everyone was like me.