It Takes A Herd

Scripture Focus: “…Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” — Matthew 22:39

A baby elephant never walks alone. While it has one mother, the entire herd steps in as a village. Females guide, protect, and nurture the little ones as a team. When trouble strikes, nobody stops to ask whose job it is to fix it. They simply respond to the need.

It’s a beautiful picture, but it leaves me wondering whether we have made the meaning of the word neighbor much too small. We tend to think of our neighbors as the people who live around us, but Jesus gave that little word a reach far beyond property lines and zip codes.

When He said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:39), He wasn’t just speaking about the person whose mailbox happens to sit beside ours. Our neighbor may indeed live next door, but it may just as easily be the person who sits a few pews behind us at church, the widower we haven’t seen for a couple of weeks, the exhausted mother in our family who insists she’s fine, or the friend going through something difficult who doesn’t need another piece of advice nearly as much as she needs someone willing to listen.

One thing I think we sometimes overlook is that caring for people doesn’t necessarily require money, unusual talent, or some grand act of sacrifice. Sometimes it’s a warm meal carried to someone who is sick, an afternoon spent visiting a person who lives alone, a ride to an appointment, groceries picked up on the way home, a child watched for an overwhelmed parent, or a telephone call that lasts a little longer than we expected because someone desperately needed to talk. There are times when the most valuable thing we can give another person is simply our attention and the assurance that they do not have to carry a hard day entirely alone.

None of us can meet every need around us, nor has God asked us to do so. There’s a wonderfully freeing little statement in Mark 14:8 where Jesus said of Mary, “She hath done what she could.” I love the simplicity of that. He did not measure her against what someone wealthier, stronger, younger, or more capable might have done. She offered what was hers to offer.

Perhaps that’s a good way to think about our responsibility toward the people God places around us. We do what we can with what we have. For one person that may be financial help; for another it may be time, transportation, food, encouragement, prayer, practical assistance, or simply the willingness to sit down and listen. We may not possess everything somebody needs, but very often we possess something that can make their burden a little lighter.

The difficulty comes when we become so occupied with our own schedules, responsibilities, problems, and comforts that we stop noticing the people around us. There is quite a difference between being unable to meet a need and never looking closely enough to see it. Sometimes caring begins with nothing more complicated than paying attention.

That may be why Jesus answered the question, “And who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29), in such an interesting way. Instead of giving the man a tidy definition, He told him about a wounded stranger beside the road. A priest saw him. A Levite saw him. Then a Samaritan saw him and allowed what he saw to become his concern. By the end of the story, Jesus had moved the question away from deciding who qualified as a neighbor and toward something much more personal: whether we are willing to be one.

Perhaps the elephant herd offers us a small reminder of something God has been teaching humanity all along. We were not created to move through life as isolated little kingdoms, concerning ourselves only with what happens inside our own fences. God has placed us among people, and sometimes His provision for someone may be something He has already placed within our ability to give.

It may not seem like much to us. A meal, an hour, a phone call, a prayer, a ride, a listening ear, or a little practical help can feel terribly ordinary. But love has always had a way of making ordinary things matter.

If this Fireside Chat warmed your spirit and sparked fresh resolve to live what you believe, fan that flame with Scripture—“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Pull a little closer to the Light, and carry it into the week ahead.

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