Opening a large box full of finished boards with small bags of different kinds of screws, fasteners, handles and hinges, my son and I began to construct a piece of furniture whose instructions indicated that it would take 1-2 hours to complete.  It didn’t take us long to conclude that we would not be winning any furniture building competitions as we scanned incomplete line drawings with very few written instructions.  We spent the afternoon assembling the unit and sometimes taking it back apart again.

 

We pushed in pegs, lined up the grooves in the boards and used screws and fasteners on ninety degree angles.  As we built, I was reminded that it is often the smallest parts that create strength, stability and connection.  Which is more important, the large, finished boards or the screws and pegs that join them together and give them purpose and functionality?  Each one is needed.    

 

“For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God.  To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby” (D&C 46:11-12). The gifts of God are scattered among us.  Whether our gifts are easily seen or inconspicuous, we grow best, we serve best, we are our best, together.  We need each other and all our gifts for it is in combination that we become “fitly framed together…for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21-22)