Clothesline - Edition 225

By Rev. Elizabeth L. Nelson, Pastor

November 13, 2024  

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7,8)

I have two stories to share with you, and then, I’ll ask you a question: What if…?

There was a couple who was scammed out of a significant amount of money. The church gathered donations in a small box and gave it to them. We could not replace what was lost, but as family reaching out a hand in love, we wanted to help, and our gesture was a blessing and touched someone’s heart in a way that could not be expressed. We don’t know what had been stolen… we don’t know what was given…. What we do know is that the love of Jesus was shared that day between members of a church family, and the light of Jesus shone brightly, even in an unexpected place. What if…there were more opportunities like that to share God’s love …but you missed them? What if…an estranged family member needed a helping hand, and you didn’t help?

Yesterday I was in the grocery store. There was a very old man standing at the meat counter, looking very confused. He saw me looking at him, smiled and walked toward me. I don’t know what he said, but I figured out he was asking me if I spoke Spanish. “I’m sorry, I don’t,” wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. He walked away. I left my cart and hurried to the first aisle where I knew there was an older worker, on his knees, stocking shelves. I thought he might speak Spanish. I told him the situation. He said he didn’t speak Spanish, but he knew someone who did. He jumped up and yelled something to the lady behind the meat counter. She came to the window and was able to help the man. My friend from the first aisle, smiled at me, held up his thumb and pointer together, and said “I knew a little bit…enough to get help.” What if opportunities like that are all around us at any given moment? What if God puts people in our path for one reason or another…and what if we miss it because we’re not looking? What if we reached out our hands in love to people who differ from us? What if we were able to see the face of Jesus, the love of God in persons we would rather avoid?

God is doing things like that all around us…all the time. What if we started to notice more opportunities God puts in our path? I used to say, “God, give me a burning bush like Moses!” Truth is, if that happened, I’d probably have a stroke! I think I’ll stick with the small things that God continually puts in my path…and pray that I don’t miss any opportunity to show the light of Christ to a brother or sister. There’s enough negativity in the world to last a lifetime…let’s shed some love in a world that’s crying out for Jesus! It certainly can’t hurt!