I felt so unqualified sitting in that anatomy lab on orientation day, surrounded by stainless steel and sharp objects that threatened stern instruction and stringent expectations. Our first task was to take inventory of each item in the Bone Box – not a phalange could be missing! And yes, the Bone Box is exactly as it sounds – a box of bones to help us learn canine osteology; in my lab mate’s words, the veterinary student’s toy box. My lab table, Table 20, slowly became surrounded by the three classmates with whom I would be spending a lot of time over the next few months (99 hours to be exact). One of them opened the Bone Box and confidently started checking off items on the list while I kept quiet and struggled to identify a femur. Looking back, it is ironic that I felt so useless and singled out from my lab group as we were all gathered around our Bone Box, piecing together the many parts of our one “body.”
“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ… Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.” (1 Corinthians 12: 12, 27)
We would spend the rest of the semester exploring how all of those parts in the Bone Box, in the beginning without name and without proper place to us, fit together. We would come to know each piece by name, understand how every depression and every projection (or, in doctor words, every groove and every tubercle) existed to support another structure, connect one part to another. We would conceptualize how all bones function together as a system, but also appreciate the value of each individual bone. We would come to know those pieces so well that we could literally name bones, differentiating left bone from right bone, with our eyes closed.
And so we also explored how each of us as veterinary classmates fit together. We would come to know each classmate by name, understand how every quirk and every eccentricity could exist to support another classmate, connect one student to another. We would conceptualize how all students function together as a cohort, but also appreciate the value of each individual classmate. We would come to know each other’s study habits so well that we could probably walk into the lab with our eyes closed (which we wouldn’t for safety reasons) and name each student there.
In the end, it turned out my confident lab partner and my questioning self were quite complimentary. Our team of four effectively learned how to fit together as one “body.” When one of us was tentative about committing to a cut during a dissection, we needed one of us to be the eyes to scan the dissection guide for direction, one to be the ears to listen to the advice of other classmates, and one to be the strong arm to encourage the other to be the delicate fingers that navigated the cut. It is the parts, with their individual functions, that make the body whole: “If they were all one part, where would the body be?” (1 Corinthians 12:19). If our lab group was all one mind, where would our dissection be? Well, we probably would either never have committed to a cut beneath the fascia, or we would have overcommitted and snipped through every last nerve we were meant to study. We needed each of our individual perceived strengths and weaknesses to make our team whole:
“Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary… if [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.” ( 1 Corinthians 12:22, 26)
I felt weak that first day, but I was a necessary part of our team. I thought coming in with no knowledge of anatomy was a weakness, but this made me an inquisitive, motivated student. Our lab group certainly shared in suffering and joy; when one of us snipped the sciatic nerve, we all felt shame (endless apologies, Rhonda), but when one of us unearthed the cisterna chyli, we all felt triumphant. A semester of dissection revealed how we are all intricately and intimately bound together, as we are all individually parts of Christ’s body. So, we are all parts in the Bone Box – each named, each with inherent individual value, and each molded to come together as one body.
Special thanks to my wonderful lab partners of Table 20 and to Rhonda, our cadaver dog. You filled first semester with learning and laughter, and you helped to make me a better future doctor.
Verses for Lectio Divina:
“ 4There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; 5there are different forms of service but the same Lord; 6there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. 7To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. 8To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; 10to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. 11But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.” (1 Corinthians 12: 4-11)
“Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into Him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s growth and builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4: 15-16.)
“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” (Romans 12:6)