If there is one thing positive to take from this grueling year of global pandemic, it is the amazing ways that people have responded to the needs of others. Volunteers have come out of the woodwork to feed the hungry, comfort the lonely, clothe the naked in a very practical demonstration of Matthew 25 : 34 – 40. Even those who have been shielding themselves have regularly phoned others in a similar situation, both friends and strangers, to make their day brighter.
Where does this response come from? Some will say from a Christian sense of duty, others from a social conscience, but both, and indeed all responses come from the heart, which is where God resides, whether the host knows it or not!
Many years ago, we, as a family , had a very bad start to the year. Two of our children contracted meningitis, one after the other, and whilst our eldest was recovering in hospital, my father fell and fractured his hip and 6 weeks later died of pneumonia. Those first three months of 1983 were frightening, worrying, exhausting and ultimately sad. Of course family and friends came from away for Dad’s funeral, and I remember thinking that I hadn’t the energy to go to the shops and then cook a meal for 11 the next day, when the door bell rang. A friend, who was a very good cook, stood on the doorstep with a huge casserole dish, and said, ‘I thought you might find this useful, Jo. I found it at the bottom of the freezer’. Those were the days when you could hug someone! And I did! Love came to my home, and my heart that day – from the bottom of the freezer.
And that’s the way God’s love works, – from one heart to another – whether the giver or the recipient are aware of it, or not. Whilst we give of ourselves to others, we give of ourselves to God. Which reminds me of the beautiful last verse of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’
What shall I give him,
Poor as I am,
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb.
If I were a wise man,
I would do my part,
Yet what I can , I give him,
Give my heart