In the aftermath of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, author and speaker Joni Eareckson Tada was invited to be part of a Christian counseling team that helped victims. Joni is a quadriplegic. She writes:

Upon arrival, I had to go to the American Red Cross center to be cleared and credentialed. And I will never forget wheeling into that low, flat, red brick building. There were people setting up chairs and tables, stacking forms, and putting out doughnuts and coffee. And across the large room was a tall, officious-looking woman in a white lab coat.

When she saw me wheel through the door, she quickly turned around with her clipboard, put down her glasses, and said, "Oh my, are we glad to see you here!"

That sparked my curiosity, and I said, "Why?"

She responded, "When people walk up to you in your wheelchair and see you handle your personal crisis with that smile of yours, it speaks volumes to them. It assures them that they can handle their crisis too. We need people like you in here. Please, help us go out and find more individuals like you who can assist us."

Immediately, I got this picture in my mind. Wouldn't it be great, on any given Sunday morning, to see people with white canes, wheelchairs, or walkers come through the doors of our sanctuaries? And wouldn't it be something if we all turned around in our seats in our congregations and exclaimed, "Oh, my, are we glad to see you here! We need people like you here in our church?" Wouldn't that be something?

The woman in the American Red Cross white lab coat had caught the drift of 1 Corinthians 12:22-23, which says, "Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts [of the body] that we think are less honorable we treat them with special honor."