“God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.  He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.  When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”  (II Cor. 1.3-4)

My wife is a great cook, and I’ve found the better someone is at something, the better they appreciate good tools.  Just as a craftsman spends heavily on precision saws, and a concert pianist appreciates a Bosendorfer, so a good cook appreciates the right instruments – in this case, copper-bottomed pans.  Why?  Because copper is an excellent conductor.  Heat is transferred uniformly and without loss so the food cooks evenly and at the right temperature.

In the movie “Pay It Forward,” the unasked question between the lines is this:  what kind of conductor are you?  Do kindnesses tend to come to an end at your doorstep, or are they freely distributed to others, so that benefits accrue rather than depreciate?

Community blesses us not only as recipients, but also as donors, because in knowing and being known we are given opportunities to dispense the very comfort and grace we have been given.  As John Rempel said in Communion as a Gathered Body, “[In Christ], autonomous individuals [do not] have parallel religious experiences.  We do not come to Christ alone but with and through one another.  The meaning of the term ‘priesthood of all believers’ is not that we can come to God privately but that we come to him on one another’s behalf:  each of us is a priest for the other.”

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