“Your lights are on.”
“Oh!” I was stunned, “Who is this?”
“I work at the Municipality office.”
“How did you know my lights were on?”
“Someone walked passed your car and noticed the lights on. They saw your parking pass in the window and recorded the information. Then they called head office, who forwarded the call to me, and I was able to pull out your file with this phone number.”
“Wow,” I was taken aback, “Thanks!”
“Have a nice day,” she replied and hung up.
I couldn’t believe it. Someone had gone to all that trouble just to save me from a dead battery at the end of the day. They didn’t know who I was or where I worked, but they still took the time to track me down.
The gratefulness for this one act of selflessness is forever seared in my memory.
This reminds me of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus tells a story of a man robbed and beaten and left for dead in a ditch. Two men passed by and ignored him. But a third man, a Samaritan, stopped and took pity on him. He bandaged his wounds and took care of him. He even offered to pay for the wounded man’s expenses while he stayed at an inn to recover (Luke 10:25).
Jesus tells us to do the same for our neighbours. I can recollect many instances when a “good Samaritan” helped me out. One time, the man delivering eggs to my home supplied sand to sprinkle under a car tire that was stuck on the slippery ice. Another time, a person watched me spin out on a patch of black ice on the highway, offered me a ride home, and called a tow truck.
My cousin put out a car fire, and directed traffic to avoid further accidents on a foggy Saturday morning. He did this out of the goodness of his heart. He did what Jesus asks all of us to do: “Love our neighbours as ourselves”(Leviticus 19:18).
My memories of helping others all seem to be centered on car troubles, however, these are just some examples. Jesus wants us to help others in all ways – physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually. God cares about the helpless and the hurting and He wants us to care also.
Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise’ (Luke 10:37 NIV).
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Jesus wants us to help others in all ways – physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually.