The Storyteller The Good Samaritan Day 5

Who is my neighbor?

I must admit that’s a question I find difficult to answer, especially in the winter when walking the dog is no longer a leisurely meet and greet. But wait…before I try once more to be a better neighbor, let me think of how God would answer that question.

  • God finds Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes and says, “There you are neighbor! How’d you get stuck here?”
  • God finds Abraham and says, “Come with me and together we’ll build a neighborhood!”
  • God sends Moses and says, “Pharaoh has called my neighbors foreigners, made them illegal without hope. Bring them to my mountain. Teach them to be neighbors. Put my tent in the middle of the neighborhood.”

Well, the story goes on with quite a lot of un-neighborly behavior when God opens his mouth and lets out the wail of a newborn. Jesus takes the brunt of our sin bent determination to reject God and dehumanize people around us. He finds us bleeding, unconscious on the road of life, a road littered with victims. “Yes,” I can hear Jesus say, “being a neighbor is a hard thing to do, but what can I say – ya gotta love ‘em!” Boy, do I need this Neighbor!

Give Jesus your full attention. Feel the soothing, healing he brings to your wounds, how lovingly he lifts you from the road. Hear him promise to pay your debt. Offer this prayer, “Jesus, without you, I’d be roadkill. Thank you for being my Neighbor. Teach me to see and love neighbors at every turn.”