Saying "hi" to a neighbour is more tricky than it might sound- I hardly ever bump into anyone as my road is pretty quiet. I went out at 8.30 this morning and returned at 9.45 this evening, not leaving much opportunity to be neighbourly.
A sermon I think I've heard preached many times is "who are our Neighbours?" In response to Jesus' request that whoever they are, we love them. Deciding that my neighbours were those with whom I shared my little corners of the world I made an effort to be more sociable in the school playground this morning. I went straight to work from there, where I hope I'm almost always neighbourly- trying to live in harmony with my colleagues!
The word 'neighbour' only ever brings one picture to my mind- The neighbourhood song on Sesame Street, the place where I can first remember hearing the word. That got me thinking about the Sesame Street muppets. They all have very distinct personalities, with very definite flaws. But we love them despite these flaws, in fact they are often used as part of the teaching in each episode.
My point here is that we all have our flaws, and we often are really quick to notice the flaws in the 'neighbours' we share the different areas of our lives with. The key to being a good neighbour might be to accept each others flaws and differences and embrace how interesting and diverse we all are!
No comments:
Post a Comment