Parable 11 - Love, Not Like

People warned Miss Ester not to move into that neighborhood.

The Down Below is a crime-filled area in the shadow of a great city.

Miss Ester had recently lost her husband, retired from her job, and had her one and only daughter move away. She picked the neighborhood because she could buy her little house outright and because she had a sense that she could do some good living there.

The night she moved in, she woke up and thought she could hear voices in the living room, but she was too scared to get out of bed. In the morning, she found that her TV, her laptop, and her purse had been stolen. Miss Ester was disappointed, but prepared. She kept little cash in her purse, no credit cards, and she hardly ever used her computer. Her TV she would miss. She saw the window that had been forced open. She decided that she wouldn’t strengthen the lock. “People will always be welcome in my house,” she thought. That thought made her shiver, but she also said to herself that whoever stole her stuff needed it more than she did.

It was springtime, and she got to work building a garden in her front lawn. Miss Ester greeted everyone who walked by.

And they greeted her, mostly out of curiosity.

Some mocked her, but a little girl named Candice asked if she needed help.

Together they pulled weeds, turned over the soil, and planted some tomatoes and peppers.

Candice told Miss Ester, “You need to watch out. The crackheads and the Blue-Striped gang are dangerous. They’ll break into your house and steal your stuff.”

“They already have.”

“Then they’ll be back. You can’t stop them.”

Miss Ester was waiting for them in the dark. She had baked cookies for them.

There were three of them who came in through the window. They took the cookies. They demanded money.

When Miss Ester said that she didn’t have any, they choked her and punched her in the face. They took her toaster, her silver pitcher—which had been a prized wedding gift from her uncle—and her spare change.

After that, Miss Ester took the suggestion of a neighbor and got bars on her windows and a triple-locked, reinforced door. She prayed for the people who did this to her. She didn’t hate them. She didn’t think she could change them, but she could be there for Candice and many others. In the summer, she started giving away home-grown tomatoes. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought that one of the people who had beaten her up walked by, and Miss Ester offered him a tomato.

He took it and said with a surprised smile, “Thank you.”

Meditation

Many of us wonder what love looks like—the love Jesus is encouraging us to have for our enemies.

Is it giving a tomato to someone who has choked you? Miss Ester thinks so.

We can actually love our neighbor without liking them. We can protect ourselves and still love our neighbor.

Unfortunately, there are those neighbors who become our enemies.

Some are immersed in crime, addiction, infidelity, and dishonesty.

Others belittle us because of our politics.

Despite the faults of others and our own mistakes, frailties, and ineptitudes, we have the chance to be loving toward all we encounter.

God is growing us, making the sun shine and the rain fall on each of us—the just and the unjust. Jesus tells us that if we are to be children of our heavenly Father, we should do the same. Lent is a time to put that into practice. Go ahead, give your enemy some love. You don’t have to like ’em, just love ’em.

Water the seed and ask yourself...

How do I love my enemy?