BY SARAH COLEMAN KELNHOFER

sit beside my husband, Chris, watching the New Mexico plains slide past the window of our bright-blue car. It's Sabbath morning, and instead of attending church with our friends, we're trekking across the state to help another Air Force couple relocate.

I don't want to go, I think dully, echoing the sentiment Chris uttered earlier in the week. We have nothing in common with Dave and Janeen, and besides, it's a three-day weekend. We could be camping. But here we sit all the same, speeding toward their crowded apartment and grudging each mile that brings us nearer. Neither of us looks forward to the upcoming three days, but we promised we'd help, and besides, we're not from totally different planets: Dave and Janeen are both Christians.

But we quickly forget this similarity in the dust and the bustle of packing them up. Janeen, newly pregnant, complains frequently about each ache and pain. Dave persuades Chris to play computer games with him in every spare moment. And when we suggest an outdoor activity as a break from our labors, Dave and Janeen seem only mildly interested. They prefer Uno to exercise.

By Tuesday morning I'm counting the hours until we can leave. It's been great to see our good friends, and I admit that we've had some great talks. But after so long together, their quirks and mannerisms rub our raw nerves like sandpaper. When the hour finally arrives, I'm ready to bolt for the door without looking back.

But before we retreat to our car, one more thing has to happen. Instinctively the four of us draw closer together and, to my surprise, I feel my throat muscles tighten. It's time for us to pray.

We gaze at each other for a moment, and I lock eyes with Janeen. I recall the unpleasant adjectives I've attached to her name in the past several days and wonder if I annoy her, too. But her clear green eyes hold my gaze, and my throat muscles tighten still further. Janeen loves me; I can see it. And despite our mountain of differences, I realize that I love her too. I sense the same love flowing between all four of us, bringing us to a common ground I'd forgotten we shared: our love for our Savior, Jesus.

Kathleen Norris describes the church as "a human institution, full of ordinary people, sinners like me, who say and do cruel, stupid things. But it is also a divinely inspired institution . . . which partakes of a unity far greater than the sum of its parts. That is why it is called the body of Christ" (Amazing Grace, p. 273). As we pray I realize anew that I am tied to all other Christians with a cord that no sharpened knife of differences can sever. That cord is Jesus, the one in whom "all things hold together" (Col. 1:17).*

The verse that, for so long, had been only theory to me comes suddenly alive in this moment. "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. . . . Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 27).

While we may not mesh with Dave and Janeen as individuals--while many members of our own church family may seem as foreign as visitors from outer space to our way of thinking, and while other believers may think we're total oddballs ourselves, we're all connected in Christ.

It's a painful, possibility-laden realization. No longer can I sit in my pew, my bright-blue car, my personal comfort zone, and select those I admire from a choice group of just-like-me's. The pool has just been enlarged--the stakes dramatically raised. The body of Christ is on trial here, and I must help prove its cohesiveness. Rather than exercising the right to be cliquish, I now have a new privilege to grasp: that of valuing each fellow believer and learning from his or her faith.

So next time, who knows? I may not leap for joy at the prospect of moving Dave and Janeen again, but I sure plan on complaining a whole lot less. Maybe that'll leave room for God's Spirit of unity (Rom. 15:5) to come in and do the work He does best: strengthening the amazing diverse body of Christ.

*All Bible verses are from the New International Version.

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Sarah Coleman Kelnhofer writes from Rio Rancho, New Mexico.