Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
As with many families, mine divides and conquers the holidays. My daughter’s family and I spend Thanksgiving day together and my son and family spends their Thanksgiving day in Muldrow, OK where Shawntel’s family lives. They celebrate with Grandma and over 60 family members. On Friday, they join us here in Frisco for our traditional day-after-Thanksgiving feast. They spend the night and on Saturday, we head to the theater to catch a “family” flick followed by Mexican food at a local restaurant. But, because of 2020’s changes to “traditional”, we’ll skip those Saturday traditions this year.
But, I remember last year. We saw the movie, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”. It was the story about the amazing life of Fred Rogers, a man who many of us enjoyed through the years. My younger grands who never had the joy of watching Mr. Rogers’ shows found it less than appealing because there were no big cinematography moments. Only a sweet man coming home, singing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
At the end of each episode, as Mr. Rogers headed out the door, he reminded the viewers: “You always make each day a special day. You know how: By just you being yourself. There’s only one person in the whole world that’s like you, and that’s you. And people can like you just exactly the way you are. I’ll be back next time. Bye-bye!” Mr. Rogers (in real life AND on set) always displayed what kindness and being a good neighbor looked like. He once said, “All of us, at some time, need help. Whether we’re giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That’s one of the things that connects us as neighbors. In our own way, each one of us is a giver and receiver.”
That was dear, Mr. Rogers! He made us feel that having neighbors was one of life’s greatest gifts. In Luke 10, Jesus told the scribe ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself” and the scribe replied, “But who is my neighbor?” That’s when Jesus gave His brilliant explanation in a parable about the Good Samaritan (an enemy to the Jews) who saved the life of a Jewish man who had been beaten, robbed and left for dead by bandits. What a storyteller Jesus was! Mr. Rogers’ stories were similar. He taught kids to love themselves and others.
So, Jesus’ answer to the scribe’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” was answered when He said, “Go and do what the Samaritan did.” In these days, that’s a HUGE statement! It suggests that all of God’s children must be our neighbors and we must love them just as the Samaritan man did! In this time of so much political hostility, biased opinions, equality issues and what’s right and wrong, I’m sure Jesus would say the same thing today in our world of so many differences. I’m quite sure He’s still saying: “ALL MY KIDS are neighbors! After 2,000 years of Me telling you that — nothing has changed in my record books. It’s STILL ‘Love your neighbors as you love yourselves!’ That ‘LOVE your neighbor admonition doesn’t have UNLESS in it anywhere!”
Thanks, my social media friends and family, for being “my neighbors”! Just imagine what heaven will be for us when every day is always “a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” We have a LOT to be thankful for this week. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!