Love is Kind

Three of us are currently organizing and running children's church at our church, and recently we started a new series about love.  As we got started, we quickly realized that we wanted to focus on emphasizing love through action instead of emotion.  Using 1 Corinthians 13 as a guide, we have so far discussed how to be loving by showing patience and kindness.  Yesterday I was the leader, and as I spent time preparing for the lesson, I realized that I wanted to emphasize that we shouldn't just be kind to those that we like, but rather, we should be kind to everybody.

The parable of the good Samaritan came to mind as I made my plans, and I read over the story a few times to figure out exactly how to explain it to kids.  For those of you who don't know the story, this is my rough interpretation/understanding of why Jesus told it and how the story goes:

An expert in the Jewish law came up to Jesus to challenge him, and he did so by asking the perfectly good question, "How do I get to heaven?"  Jesus, as he often did, answered by asking a question: "What do you think?"  The expert responded well by saying, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself."  Naturally, Jesus was pleased with this answer, and he said, "You nailed it.  Now do that."  However, the expert didn't want to love everybody, so he asked Jesus, "Who IS my neighbor anyway?"  Then Jesus told a story.

A Jewish man was walking along a road when a robber came along and beat him badly and took his possessions including his clothes.  As he lay in a ditch dying, a Jewish person of highest standing when it came to religion (a priest) passed by, but he did nothing to help.  Next, a Jewish person of second highest standing (a Levite) passed by, but he also did nothing to help.  Finally, a Samaritan passed by.  Samaritans and Jews pretty much were both taught to hate each other, but Jesus says that this Samaritan felt compassion on the Jewish man.  He gave him first aid, lifted him onto his own donkey, and took him to a place where he'd be cared for while paying the expenses with his own money.

Jesus then asks the expert who was a neighbor to the man who was attacked, and the expert replied that it was the man who showed mercy.  Jesus then instructed the expert to do likewise.

It really hit me that Jesus was showing us that we are always supposed to have our eyes open and hearts ready to be compassionate.  Even if we think that the person is a horrible person, we are supposed to be so full of compassion and mercy that we can't help but to show kindness.  I couldn't help but to feel like perhaps I could always stand to be more compassionate.  I am fairly good about showing outward kindness, but I don't always think kind things about everybody.  More importantly, I do not always take the time to look inside the person and see the beautiful shared humanity.  I think that if I do this, I can be more patient.  I can better understand where people are coming from.  I can feel God's love for people.

I think that if we all do this, we can prevent wars.  We can show mercy to the poor.  We can stop judging people.  We can stop spreading ignorance and hate.

Love is kind.  Allowing compassion in our hearts increases acts of kindness.