My kids and I agreed that the ultimate place to be during our annual worship night at church is the balcony.First, we don’t have a balcony at the campus we attend, so it’s a novel experience for us, but secondly, there’s an energy from being up above everyone else that just takes my breath away.

During one song that I didn’t know very well, my mind was slightly less than engaged in the words, I must admit. And I started scanning the crowd, the people on stage, the folks in the tech booth. And here’s what began to hit me.

There was a young man on stage, in the choir, who was in the youth group when my husband and I led it some fifteen years ago. And there was a gal in the tech booth producing the entire event who let my daughter shadow her last summer for a Saturday night service. And there was a man just below me who I used to be on staff with that I’m praying for. And a man one row in front of him who is praying for me. And a gal that I used to be in a couples’ group with. And the gal that I handed the women’s ministry reins over to. And a man on stage who has shown me what it means to be a true shepherd for fifteen years. And a woman who I led to Christ. And a couple who only attended our church because of a mistake that I, or the Sugar Grove Post Office (depending on who’s telling the story), made about five years ago. And those were just the people I could recognize in the dark.

We’re all connected.I am the Church.We are the Church.

We have a multitude of things not in common, all 3000 of us in that room.But we have got one huge, unmistakable, unflappable thing in common and that’s the deeply held belief that Christ is Lord now and forever.And He covers over every disagreement, every hurt word, every misstep over the years.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17