My friend Carrie’s five-year-old daughter, Maija, has an interesting approach to playtime. She loves mixing together dolls from different playsets to come up with a new community. In the world of her imagination, everything belongs together. These are her people. She believes they’re happiest when they’re together, despite being different sizes and shapes.
Her creativity reminds me of God’s purpose for the church. On the day of Pentecost, Luke tells us, “At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem” (ACTS 2:5). Though these people were from different cultures and spoke different languages, the Holy Spirit’s arrival made them a new community: the church. From then on, they would be considered one body, unified by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The leaders of this new body were a group of men Jesus brought together during His time on earth—His disciples. If Jesus hadn’t united them, more than likely they would never have come together. And now more people—“about 3,000” (2:41)—had become believers in Jesus. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, this once-divided group “shared everything” (V. 44). They were willing to share what they had with each other.
The Holy Spirit continues to bridge the gaps between people groups. We might not always get along, nor readily understand one another, but as believers in Christ, we belong together.
