I Gather Together: A Lesson From The Toy Box

For where two or three gather together in my name, there am I with them. ~Jesus Christ

Without intending to, the inventors of these colorful building blocks gave them a name from the Latin, LEGO, which can be translated I gather together.

Stud and Tube are the official names of the two sides of the LEGO brick. In my painful experience, LEGOS prefer to rest stud-side-up, prepared for the unsuspecting tread of my bare feet.

The classic LEGO has both sides. No pirate ship, spacecraft or model of Hogwarts Castle is possible without their fundamental capacity to join and be joined to; the willingness to offer and receive in return.

LEGO’s are not made for solitary existence and neither are we. But it is tempting to admire smooth-sided plastic, so supremely self-sufficient and above the messy drama of relationships. To be limited and lacking, and to be in relationship with others who are equally so, is never easy.

But in the end it is the studs and tubes, not the smooth, glossy sides, that make it possible for young engineers to follow the dog-eared directions.

Piecing it together

• On a shelf in my garage boxes of abandoned pieces wait. Maybe they dream of clumsy fingers patiently clumping them into a beauty they can’t find on their own.
• On the shelves of our world abandoned people wait. Maybe they dream of tender hearts with un-glossy sides gathering them into the together they can’t find on their own.

I gather together, one person to another. This is the holy calling for all who still follow the Divine Inventor’s dog-eared design.

Who in your world needs to be gathered into community? Have you experienced the joy of being something together you could not be on your own?