‘I am the light of the world. The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
– John 8v12
I recently responded to an email that said: In Ukraine, thousands of people are struggling to access basic personal care items as a result of being displaced or trapped by the conflict. So decided to go along and spend some time packing and praying over hygiene boxes that would be send off, along with an army of volunteers we managed to pack 900 boxes that day.
Each box containing 14 essential items< consisting of:
2 toilet rolls, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, comb, toothpaste, tee-shirt, small bag, sanitary items, deodorant, razor, soap, wash cloth
As I was packing the boxes, I thought about the person that would be receiving the box and what would be their possible reaction, after all they were receiving this from a complete stranger. So it got me thinking and asking myself, who is my Neighbour biblically speaking?
Galatians 5:14- ‘you shall LOVE your NEIGHBOUR as YOURSELF’, we can’t love our neighbour if we don’t know who are neighbour is. Do you agree? So the command to love our neighbour is meaningless until we understand who our neighbour is.
Your neighbour does not necessarily mean they live next door to you, they could actually live across the ocean and still be, our neighbour, are you getting the picture.
As Jesus commands us, You shall love your neighbour, it means that we should do exactly that, how do we show love then to our neighbour.
I reached out practically, I love that word, because it means, you don’t have to have any special qualifications, you don’t even need to have gone to train, just have the heart for God and for his people to do exactly that.
Volunteering your time in your community is a way of showing Love to your neighbour, schools need us, youth services, being a mentor to a young person, being a listening ear to another person, befriending those who are isolated, becoming the voice for the voiceless. I could go on and on.
Whatever you choose to do, do it in Love and we will begin to see the transformation of our communities.
God Bless and happy practical showing love to your neighbour.