Sunday July 10th: Go and do likewise!

The stranger in need becomes your brother, your friend, your neighbour.

Luke 10: 25-37

There is a balm in Gilead. There is a balm cascading down Mt. Gilead, flowing into the lives of people, our loved ones, our families. There is a balm that knows no end and is waiting for all of us good Samaritans to initiate and dispense the flow of kindness.

‘But before you know what kindness really is, you must lose things.’ ( Naomi Shihab Nye) That which you counted on, cherished, craved and held dear dissolved like salt before your very eyes. When the landscape seems so desolate, then from that heap of lonely scattered rocks a hill arise and then the mountain inside you allow the balm of kindness to flow into hidden crevices of need.

Just like tea needs a cup to be shared; so kindness needs an accepting vessel to receive the balm; or else the brewed tea loses its potency; impotent and tasteless as misdirected kindness. As the thieves removed his identifiable clothing; the stranger in need becomes your brother, your friend, your neighbour. So, stop and do likewise.