Honoring Your Neighbor

Keep on loving each other as brothers in Christ.

Hebrews 13:1

Hurricane Irene was very unkind to my corner of Virginia.  The area east and southeast of Richmond was hit hard – probably by twisters as well as the winds and rain.  Trees are down everywhere, many of them 100-year-old oaks.  In a neighborhood close to me, what is left of the majestic foliage lies across automobiles or sliced into homes.  Getting electricity back is a bit of a joke.  Not happening today – probably won’t happen tomorrow.

A huge tree has fallen across the parking lot of Sherbourne United Methodist Church – a building that houses a church, a food pantry and a medical clinic for the poor.  The branches are blocking the church entrances.  The church is small, elderly and very poor.   Who will help them?  There is a vacant home in my neighborhood that lost a giant tree alongside the house and into the street.  The police cut off the portion that blocked the road, but otherwise the debris just lays there.  I’ve been looking for neighbors coming out with chainsaws to rise to the occasion, but the houses surrounding it are very quiet.

At the end of another street, a portion of a tree came down in the backyard of a family who are out of town.  As I drove by yesterday, I discovered another of my neighbors in the back yard with loppers and chain saw, cutting up the debris and neatly stacking it.  He said, “My friend is out of town, so I’m going to get this cleaned up.”  I said, “Bless your heart!”  Tomorrow morning another neighbor and I are going over to load up the branches in my truck and take them to the dump.

In a time of adversity, we all need our friends, our families, and our neighbors to help us navigate safe passage.  God is very clear that our purpose here is to help others and spread His love throughout our sphere of influence.  We need each other, in bad times as well as good ones.  God calls us to love Him with our entire being, and equal to that, love those around us as we love our own lives.