“Twin girls, Brielle and Kyrie, were born 12 weeks ahead of their due date. Needing intensive care, they were placed in separate incubators. Kyrie began to gain weight and her health stabilized. But Brielle, born only 2 lbs, had trouble breathing, heart problems and other complications. She was not expected to live.

Their nurse did everything she could to make Brielle’s health better, but nothing she did was helping her. With nothing else to do, their nurse went against hospital policy and decided to place both babies in the same incubator.

She left the twin girls to sleep and when when she returned she found a sight she could not believe. She called all the nurses and doctors and this is what they saw. As Brielle got closer to her sister, Kyrie put her small little arm around her, as if to hug and support her sister. From that moment on, Brielle’s breathing and heart rate stabilized and her health became normal.”

That’s a powerful example of how two are better than one, as the verse in Ecclesiastes says. Christianity is not and has never been an individualistic faith. It’s meant to be lived out in community from start to finish.

The reason that the Church exists is not for us to have something to do for one hour a week on Sundays. It’s a place for us to acknowledge our weaknesses and to be strong for each other in areas where they’re weak, just as someone else can be strong for us in the places where we’re weak.

Christians fall and fail because they isolate. They withdraw from other believers in times when they need other believers the most. In some cases, believers have been ostracized from community instead of seeking to bring them to healing and restoration.

The best witness is still how much we love each other. It’s when we forgive each other instead of cancelling each other like everyone else does. It’s when we offer restoration instead of revenge and retaliation. It’s when we love those among us who deserve our love the least but need it most. It’s when we love each other like Jesus loved us and gave Himself up for us.

Let’s love those God has placed in front of us. But most of all, let’s love each other like our very lives depended on it (as The Message puts it), because sometimes that may just be the case.