My one-year-old’s increased mobility paired with his tireless curiosity has landed him some extra bumps and bruises lately.
The other morning I was downstairs with the boys putting their clothes away from a laundry load the night before. Ace was jamming out to his current favorite Tangled soundtrack which typically looks more like a solitary mosh pit experience, and he loves every second of it. JJ was joining in with his own dance moves a safe distance across the room.
A few minutes went by as I was shoving pants into a drawer. I looked behind me and saw Ace, but no JJ.
I scanned around the downstairs and still couldn’t find him. So I half-panicked yelled, “JJ??”
Then, just as the thought occurred to me that he might have snuck up the stairs, I heard:
Boom, Boom, THUD!
And then SCREAMING CRYING
I rushed up the stairs and found JJ laying on his back on the landing.
I swooped him up and tried to console him while running a hundred different scenarios through my mind trying to figure out what exactly had happened.
Did he roll down the stairs? Did he hit his head on the trim? Did he land on his arm?
I could put the pieces together that he had climbed all the way to the top of the stairs, and when I yelled for him must have turned around and fallen a few stairs down to the first landing.
Thankfully, he was all the way to the top and there were only a few stairs to fall down, and not the entire flight that it could have been.
As I was trying to assess him for any serious injuries, all I kept thinking was if only I knew what had happened exactly, I’d know better how to take care of him right now.
But, as I kept hugging and rocking him and stroking his little mostly bald head, he began to settle down.
Once he had calmed down to a state of the saddest little whimpers, I felt God speaking in my heart,
“Christi, you don’t need to know all the details of what happened to someone in order to care for them.”
God was right. (Of course)
JJ didn’t need me to know every detail of what had just happened.
He needed me to care for him now.
I’ll admit, sometimes I don’t take the step into someone else’s life because I don’t feel qualified to care for them. I don’t fully understand what it’s like to go through what they’re facing, and so I stay back and hope that someone who “knows better” steps up.
But, in Luke 10, Jesus gives us a much more active picture of what it should look like when we step into caring for each other.
He takes the time to answer a testing man’s question using a parable, meaning it didn’t actually happen, it was a story Jesus told to teach his lesson.
“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. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal 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.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” Luke 10:29-37 (ESV)
In this story, the Samaritan found the beaten man after everything had happened to him. He found him laying hurting, and in need. He could have imagined scenarios, I’m sure, but he couldn’t have known exactly what had happened to him.
He didn’t know the details of the trauma this man had endured.
He didn’t know the extend of this man’s wounds.
He didn’t know how long he had been laying there broken.
He didn’t know the length of his recovery.
What he did know was that the person in from of him was hurting.
And that’s all the information it took to call him into action.
Will you take time this week to rest at Jesus’ feet asking Him to open your eyes to those hurting on your path?
Over the next couple weeks, I’m excited to explore this picture Jesus painted for us and dive into what it looks like to care for each other together!
From one of His children to another,
Christi
I’m living this out with a neighbor family who have recently gone through a double tragedy. It’s scary to step out even when you feel God urging you to do it. But when you listen, it not only helps them, but you are blessed even more.