Lenten Devotion, Mar. 27

The lawyer asked, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' " Matt: 22: 36-39 Recently I was driving with a friend on a very cold and blustery day. We passed a person lying on the side of the street with his bicycle tipped over beside him. Half a block later my friend exclaimed, "We have to go back! We have to see if that person is all right! Go around the block!" So we drove around the block but the person on the ground was gone. That request from my friend caused me to think. I hadn't given the person on the ground a second thought but my friend realized that he might have fallen, might even be injured, and she was willing to go out of her way to make sure he was okay. Our neighbors are the people God places in our lives who need our noticing and caring. I'm grateful to my friend for reminding me that the opportunity to love my neighbor might happen at any time and place.

Compassionate God, keep us alert to the neighbors you have placed in our lives with whom we can share your love and caring.

Merrily Sutton