Facebook Remembers

The day my brother, Ted, died about four months ago, I created a Facebook group to remember him. I asked friends and family to join the group and share their remembrances . The response was huge and turned out to be one of the my biggest sources of comfort in those tender early days.

The group is still active, and now I find myself posting on it when I find a video, a photo, or an article that Ted would have loved. I share it with the group. He can't enjoy it now, but the group can love it for him. The group, over 1000 strong, stands in for my big brother. They remember him for me. They re-member him. The put him back together. The group has become my brother in his absence and while he can never be brought back, this community stands in and makes him feel alive. All because of Facebook.

As Christians, we're supposed to do the same thing with Christ. We are to remember Christ and re-member him. We are to show the face of Christ to one another and to act as his body in the world. When we worship, when we pray, when we serve, when we reach out in compassion, we are becoming Christ's body--we are making him come alive again and again.

Acts of grace and compassion abound on Facebook. Between the photos of meals and snarky articles and top 10 celebrity fashion disasters, there are people showing the face of Christ on Facebook. It looks like comments of support and hugs sent from around the world. It is the offering of prayers for friends and strangers. It is support groups. It is people being real and making themselves vulnerable. It is event invites for volunteer opportunities. It is long lost friends reconnecting.

I never thought I would find myself making the argument that the face of Christ can be seen on Facebook. But under the layers of time consuming Buzzfeed articles and arguments about dress color, there is something real and beautiful going on here. I hope you see it too, and that you too will become the Facebook face of Christ for others to see.