“‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’” (Luke 10:25-37).
My husband – for all his faults – tends to eat the food on his plate. He grew up during the war in Lebanon when food was often scarce, and as a result he considers it a terrible sin to waste food. Even if he does not really enjoy eating the food, he tells himself that he should just throw it in his mouth and swallow it because he is lucky to have the food on his plate.
I grew up very differently. I was a terribly fussy eater who put my mother through all sorts of dramas in order to entice me to eat the food she had lovingly and painstakingly prepared for me. As a child I thought nothing of this inconvenience. As an adult, I am heartily ashamed of that behaviour – ignorant as it was – because it was a sign of my sense of entitlement. I often asked for modifications to the menu and my mother – eager to feed her child – did what I asked to make sure I ate my food. After marrying my husband, I stopped all of that. After all, his good example with food made me feel rather idiotic to be complaining about the food on my plate.’
And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about my neighbour…
“A lawyer asked Jesus, ‘who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’” (Luke 10:25-37).
You see a Samaritan was not a friend of a Jew – they were enemies – and even so, he helped the man...
And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about my husband and what he has taught me. For it seems that I have learned to eat the food on my plate, even if it is just a plain piece of toast, because with something like that I am able to draw myself closer to God, for God is hidden there, in the little things, like the plain old piece of toast on my plate…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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