Imagine, if you will, a vast array of hexagonal shaped tiles. Picture in your mind’s eye, a seemingly endless floor beneath your feet, covered in these six sided tiles, each one connected to six other tiles on each side, one after another. From your perspective, there seems to be no beginning and no end. A continuous union, interwoven and dependent on each other, yet each uniquely independent in it's own right. Tiles are not something that we typically give much thought to, are they? Thoughts of them don't consumes our day and usually not something that will enter into common daily conversation. It is not until we look closely at the tile community that we realize that they actually illustrate something more significant than simply covering a bathroom floor. Let me explain what I mean.
Looking closely, we can clearly see that at any given time, an individual tile can be the center of six other tiles. Going further, we see that the same tile can be the center of twelve tiles, twenty four tiles and so on. But, in an infinite surrounding of tiles, that same individual tile could be the center of the entire tile community, and if intently focused upon, the only tile in view. The only one that exists.
If only a connecting tile, it matters not where it is placed in the endless connection of tiles, but its value is the same as the center tile. So much so that it too can also represent the center tile at any given time, along with the infinite others that surround it.
So, why am I rambling about bathroom tiles? Well, Romans 12:4 & 5 says, "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." After reading this, it occurred to me that the Church is somewhat like the group of endless tiles. Each member is connected to one another, and is vital in the existence of the tile community as a whole. One by one, six by six, twelve by twelve, and so on, we are each joined together in an infinite pattern of unity. None more important that the other, and all connected by a spiritual "grout" that holds us all together as one.
But at any given time, one person can stand as the center tile. As God looks down and views the endless array, He sees each of us as the center, and if focused on with intensity, as the only tile that exists. Six, twelve, twenty four, in a cosmic system of spiritual connection, it doesn’t matter who is joined to whom. From God’s view of this beautiful mosaic, we are all connected, and are all mysteriously the center. The only tile that exists.
