We are told by our Lord to love everyone (Matt. 22:37-39). There is no question that it is hard to do such when someone is being unkind. Christ clearly states that if we love those who love us, what reward have we? (Matt. 5:46). It would do us well to remember that people who hurt people are hurting. Most of the time we just don’t know what others are going through.

Last week, our seven year old granddaughter went through something that broke our hearts. Let me first give you some background. Lucy is in the 1^st grade and developed a friendship with a fellow student that didn’t have too many friends. This girl would often act odd and was struggling to learn things, of which Lucy would help her with. The teacher would say that Lucy would go out of her way to assist that girl in any way she could. Sometimes the girl would have to leave class when a counselor would have to come and take her out for being disruptive. There were even times this child would have to go home for getting sick all of a sudden.

Well, last week Lucy’s friend was taken to the hospital and they found out she had brain tumors, which explained the many problems she has had learning and her problems dealing with others. The child died this past week and the teacher called my daughter, Leah, to tell her how hard this was going to be on Lucy to help prepare her.

The lesson I learned from Lucy is that whether or not someone is ill, we should be willing to care for others. Part of me thinks, a seven year old doesn’t need to go through such. But what do you tell her, not to care for people? Of course not. Think of Jesus. Our Lord cared for everyone to the point of dying on the cross for those who didn’t love Him (Rom. 5:6-11). But would we have wanted to tell Jesus not to care? Of course not.

May we learn to love from our Master and from a seven year old who looked past the bad behavior that caused others to ignore her.

Chuck