Shedding a Little Light

“And who is my neighbor?”

“Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’" Luke 10: 29 and 37

Your neighbor is the person who lives next door…across the street…on the next road…in the car driving next to you… in the pew next to you…in another country…the one who just did you a great kindness…the one who prayed for you…the one who ignored you…the one who gossiped about you…the one whose politics are different than yours…the one who speaks another language…the one whose skin and culture are different from yours…Your neighbor is a person you haven’t met…is the person at the food pantry needing food…is the rude person in the grocery line…is the one who bullied you in school…is the guy who just cut you off in traffic… all these and more are your neighbor.

You are a child of God, and the Lord has charged you to be loving and merciful. Your neighbor is a child of God…in fact, they are your brother or sister, spiritually speaking. We are all children of God, whether we are acting accordingly or not. And how do we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do we treat them with love and mercy? How do we act/react toward them?

Pray for patience and the ability to show mercy. Pray that you will not pass by someone who needs you. Pray that you will notice AND respond to those who reach out. Pray that it will be obvious to those around you that you resemble your heavenly creator parent. And the next time someone cuts you off in traffic, instead of calling them by some derogatory name, call them by who they are. Instead of cursing them, say, “Today I bless you child of God. May you arrive safely wherever you are going.” Amen! This is how we can “go and do likewise.”

This is how we…

Keep Living in the Light

Bernie