The Absent Samaritan

Grandma gave me a devotional book recently, called “Disguises of Love”. The thoughts and prayers written by a man named Eddie Askew - and what strikes me is how honest he is about the state of the world. He is no stranger to its brokenness, and articulates it in a way that maybe I would be afraid to. He writes:

“I’ve rewritten the parable of the Good Samaritan. My version now reads:

“A man was in his way from Jerusalem down to Jericho when he fell in with robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. If so happened that a priest was doing down by the same road; but when he saw him, he went past on the other side. So too a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him went past on the other side.... Then for a long time no-one came. The sun beat down by day, the night was very cold, and the man died” (Luke 10 NEB, with additions).

Because for many people, help never comes. Do I hide behind the comfort of ignorance, allowing the millions of people in need to only be statistics? Is their reality to me no more than the picture on the back of a Kellogg’s packet? Do I allow the numbers to numb me to the humanity behind them?

Lord show us, show me how to share you love, so that it spills over into the Jericho road. So that someone today may find new life and hope, may find the open door into your Kingdom.