Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. ”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, January 12, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
We’re all taught “stranger danger!” as kids. Or, at least, I was and my kids were. I can’t speak for everyone. But the concept of “strangers” in our society carries deep mistrust. Yet everyone who is a stranger to you is still a human being, a beloved child of God, deserving of love—love as an action, not a feeling.
The fact of the matter is that nearly everyone in a world is a stranger to each of us. I am a stranger to you, and you are all strangers to me. Most likely, every Israeli victim of Hamas, every Palestinian victim of Israel is a stranger to us. Every Ukrainian child who is killed in the war with Russia, every Russian soldier conscripted to serve is a stranger. And at the same time, these are our brothers and sister, our parents and children, our siblings in God’s family. God is watching over them. Holding them. And God calls us to show them love in whatever way we can, even (and especially) if it is only to pray for them, these people we may never meet.
In God’s eyes, no one is a stranger. May we extend love and service to every single human being we come across in our daily lives, whether we know them personally or not.
When have I shown kindness to a stranger? How did it make me feel?
