Colorful Characters

By Cynthia Ruchti

Consider any troupe of sit-com characters. What makes the blend work? Their differences linked by a common bond.

For example: the quirky young people with vastly different internal conflicts, all struggling to become full-fledged adults in the big city environment.

The unique family dynamics that often erupt in a firestorm that keeps us laughing because, though exaggerated, the mother-in-law seems like our own…the brother’s phobias sound familiar…the grandpa’s caustic comments show up at our own Thanksgiving dinners.

What’s the point? It’s the mix of quirky characters that makes the scenes entertaining.

And so it is in the church.

The guy who serves as self-appointed bylaws police, quoting section, page, and point at each congregational meeting.

The woman who keeps a Jell-O salad in her fridge and a casserole in the Crock-pot “just in case” someone needs them.

The man who can’t read well but hasn’t missed a Sunday as a greeter for 37 years.

The teen with more earrings than sense but an enormous heart for worship.

In the book of Romans we read that we are all parts of His one body. We’re all members of a quirky cast that keeps the Lord perpetually entertained.

Rather than letting irritation build the next time people at church do or say something odd, consider replying, “What a colorful cast of characters!”

PRAYER: Lord, sometimes it’s easier to love the lost than it is to tolerate the quirks of those who love the lost with me. Widen my compassion for the cast of characters in Your holy drama.

“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another,” Romans 12:5 KJV.

Today’s devotional is by Cynthia Ruchti, writer/producer of THE HEARTBEAT OF THE HOME radio ministry and president of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). Cynthia’s debut novel—They Almost Always Come Home—releases with Abingdon Press May 1, 2010–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtZb0by984g. Cynthia writes stories of Hope-that-glows-in-the-dark (www.cynthiaruchti.com).