Neighbours
I wonder if you have got to know your neighbours better
over the last year. We certainly have. It’s partly through
clapping for the NHS (though it was a bit cold last week)
and local VE day celebrations, and of course being at home
a little more.
You see when you first move to an area, you don’t
necessarily know the people in your block or street, and
you don’t necessarily want to know them all, partly out of
privacy and the British thing of “my home is my castle”!
But when you are thrown together in a global pandemic,
and are all going through the same thing, it kind of brings
you together.
We’ve noticed that we chat longer to our neighbours now,
and when they drop round an Amazon delivery that we
missed, we find ourselves glad to be chatting to a real
human being who is not on a screen or on a phone, and
they linger a little longer than before.
In our neighbourhood, we started a Whatsapp group for
our street just before the last lockdown, just to put people
in touch in case anyone needs anything. It’s actually been
a great blessing.
People have been sharing news and views, and we’ve
been able to co-ordinate together about talking to the
council about the trees. And best of all, when someone’s
cat went missing, a neighbour spotted a post on a
facebook site in Biggleswade, and the cat was returned to
its owner. That made Christmas!
As the old Aussie soap opera put it… “Neighbours should
be there for one another, that’s when good neighbours
become good friends”.
We are living in very tough days, perhaps some of the
toughest of our lives. Well we can look out for our
neighbours. Check on them (in a socially distanced way)
and see if they need anything from the shops, or just a
friendly chat, particularly if they are elderly or needy.
Never before have we needed our neighbours so much.
Jesus taught us to love our neighbours as ourselves. And
of course, he was the ultimate neighbour, thinking
sacrificially of those around him, and ultimately laying
down his life for us even though we don’t deserve it. God’s
love for us is kindness shaped. In turn, let’s share that
kindness with our neighbours.
Charlie Newcombe