This country, as well as many communities worldwide, was built by people helping people
Source: photos.com
This country, as well as many communities worldwide, was built by people helping people. Often it was the literal survival of the people involved at stake. The community unites in building a barn when one person’s barn burns down or in building a home for a newly-married couple. These things strengthen a community and its members. It builds relationships and fosters good will.
As societies become affluent, it seems this effort diminishes as walls go up and people don’t even know their neighbors. They pay for everything to be done instead of helping each other with tools and labor for free. Soon they start categorizing people, and a caste system develops. One group becomes “superior” and another “inferior.” I have seen it for myself in other countries where it is the stated norm, and it is sad. It is also an unstated norm in many free societies.
I think of the “good Samaritan” and what he did for a stranger. Jesus had been asked, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). The priest and the Levite passed by the beaten victim, ignoring his need, but the Samaritan went above and beyond to help. If I were building a barn, the good Samaritan would help. If I needed a place to stay, the good Samaritan would let me in.
Would you build a barn for me? I don’t really need a barn. My neighborhood association wouldn’t let us build one. But if they did, would you help? In my earliest years of the Church, in the 1950s, so many came to the aid of my mother, a widow with two small boys. At the Feast of Tabernacles one could walk through the campgrounds and have the problem of being offered more than you could eat.
My favorite recollections are Feasts shared in a large home that neither family could afford alone. It wasn’t the cost but the relationships built, the lifelong memories and friendships. Sharing was common, and it built a Church community.
It is that community I would like to get back. We are going that direction in the home office. A number of us moved here recently, and were assisted in unpacking and moving furniture to our new homes. People showed up with boxes, blankets, dollies or just themselves for physical labor. It made an arduous task easier and enjoyable. I am proud to have helped, and to have been helped when I and others moved to Cincinnati.
I would like to start our own national listing of homes. It would enable those who are travelling to find other brethren to stay with, who have volunteered to have their home on the list. The spiritual benefits would be enormous. Sharing builds relationships, which builds trust, and promotes love and concern for one another. Jesus shared all with his disciples and gave Himself for all of humanity. Jesus would be at the barn building. Would you?
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