Welcome to another edition of the LKP Treasure Trove

Many times, we are given various opportunities to be kind to a neighbor, someone who shares this earth with us, but who is not part of our culture. A neighbor isn’t just someone who is like you, or from among your people. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, found in Luke 10:25 – 37, Yeshua demonstrated what being a neighbor to someone truly represents. In today’s story, a teenage girl named Kayla will see the error of her ways and strive to be a good neighbor to someone many times older than she is.

A Good Neighbor

They turned the corner on Foster Street and drove past three neighbors’ houses before they came to their drive. The house directly across the street from theirs was eerily quiet, with empty trash cans flopped on their sides, their lids strewn open.

Mom was staring at the trash cans when she spoke to her teenage daughter in the front passenger seat. “Before I pull in, can you run across and set Mrs. O’Shaughnessy’s trash cans upright on her porch?”

Kayla slowly turned her head and glanced at the cans with a bored expression. “Sure,” she said under her breath after a few seconds, before opening the car door with the little energy she could afford to spare. She didn’t even make the effort to close the car door behind her.

Mom sat and waited patiently for the first few minutes, but Kayla took such a long time dragging her feet in the process of returning the trash cans to their rightful place that she just couldn’t wait any longer. She reached over and closed the front passenger door and pulled the car into the drive. By the time mom unloaded the groceries from the car, put them away in the kitchen cupboards and pantry, and folded her cloth grocery bags, Kayla finally entered the front door and sluggishly made her way to her room. She looked as though she had just returned from a long day of carrying elephants on her back uphill.

“I put the trash cans back,” Kayla murmured.

“I see,” mom said, as she gazed through the kitchen window at the front yard across the street. “Poor Mrs. O’Shaughnessy. That tall grass is making her property look like a jungle.” Kayla didn’t quite make it to her room when her mom added, “I need you to mow her lawn tomorrow morning, first thing. I would do it myself but I’m booked solid.”

Kayla hung her head while her arms went limp at her sides. “Do I have to?” she said, but knew she wasn’t winning any arguments with her mom.

Mom turned to Kayla with her arms folded. “I have to say child, you’ve been giving me resistance for a whole month now. I ask you to do a few simple things and it’s like I’m asking you to build a city.”

“Why can’t Mrs. O’Shaughnessy do it herself, or hire someone else to?” Kayla asked.

Mom looked surprised. “Oh, you haven’t heard? Mrs. O’Shaughnessy has been in the hospital since May, recovering from a nasty spill, and she has no family in this country. Your father and I are the only ones who have been visiting her. It’s the neighborly thing to do.”

“I didn’t . . . I didn’t know,” Kayla said. “I’ll cut her grass right now, mom. And I’m sorry I’ve been such a horrible neighbor. I wouldn’t dream of being unkind to Mrs. O’Shaughnessy, knowing she can’t help herself.”

NOW, WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Will you pass up the opportunity to do good to a neighbor and wait until circumstances are bad before you act? When we put forth the effort to show kindness to those with whom we come into contact quite often, we are in fact planting seeds of righteousness that Yah can germinate. By being neighborly, like the example found in the parable of the Good Samaritan, you are actually showing forth Yah’s goodness and spreading his marvelous light to those who may still be in darkness. So, don’t put off helping a neighbor to a future time.