the simplest of things
You might think I’m a bit strange when I say that my all-time favorite television show is The Waltons. For Christmas, my husband surprised me with the series on DVD and just hearing the theme song brings a smile to my face.
There’s something about watching a Depression Era family of eleven (husband, wife, seven children, and a set of grandparents) who are able to still make room for one more at the dinner table that just warms my heart. A place where lives are shared, neighbors help each other, welcoming new people into the community is a given, and so on. Growing up watching the show I longed for such a place.
In the last thirty years, I have seen changes take place that make me fear I’ll never see it. Unlike the welcoming warmth depicted in The Waltons, many homes don’t have sidewalks anymore where people can walk by and stop to talk with their neighbors. Most homes come equipped with remote control garage doors so people simply drive into their garages and enter their homes from there, never seeing nor speaking to anyone. People are so busy living their own lives that they don’t even know the person that lives next door.
When my husband and I got married, we prayed that God would allow our home to be a lighthouse in our neighborhood. We wanted to be the Kool-Aid house. We made it a point to get to know our neighbors. When we moved to Whittier, instead of waiting for our neighbors to greet us, we decided to bake batches of cookies, deliver them to our neighbors and introduce ourselves. Imagine the look on their faces: with the door slightly cracked open, they see a pregnant couple with an army of kids standing on their porch bearing treats. You don’t see that everyday! But it worked as the first step to building relationships.
We didn’t stop there, we reached out to others in our community to show them the love of Christ: Taking flowers from our garden to our 74 year old neighbor from Texas who loves her Dallas Cowboys (she and my husband do a lot smack talking during football season); delivering Christmas treats as a family to our neighbors homes; the boys taking out the garbage cans for our older neighbors on rainy mornings; delivering our “Chip Anderson Chicken Soup” to neighbors when they are sick with the flu. (We affectionately named the soup after Chip, a dear friend who has since passed away, who told us how much he loved it and began referring to us as the “Soup Lady and her Husband.”)
Just yesterday, I was on the receiving ending of blessing when we took a pot of soup over to a neighbor we don’t know well who lives further down our street. We had heard that she was ill and had been hospitalized and I knew God was bringing her to my mind. When we knocked at the door, her adult daughter had a concerned look on her face as she cautiously greeted a group of strangers. We introduced ourselves and told her that we had heard her mom was sick and that we had made soup. She gasped, gave us a huge smile, and welcomed us into their home. In an instant, we were talking and laughing, exchanging phone numbers and we offered our assistance should there be a need.
Her reaction was a gift to me. To see that something as simple as a pot of soup could bring such a huge smile and spring a door wide open; they were so grateful that I cried on the way home. Almost all our neighbors are non-Christians and we are a walking living Bible for them to read. We are a far cry from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia of The Waltons, but the idea of such a place with Christ at the center does exist — even in Whittier, California!
Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
– John 13:34-35
Rachel has been married to her amazing husband, David, for 15 years and they are the parents of 6 wonderful boys. She has been a member of Mosaic for 17 years and she is currently on the SHE Nurtures core team. She also partners with her husband in pre-marital counseling.
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