大象传媒

Good morning.Since having open-heart surgery last year I鈥檓 not as steady on my feet as I used to be. So perhaps it鈥檚 not surprising that, while hurrying along the road one morning recently, I took a tumble. The results were superficially quite dramatic: torn trousers, gashed knees and forehead, a cracked nose, and wrecked glasses. I staggered unsteadily to my feet, feeling like the man who 鈥榝ell among thieves鈥� in Jesus鈥� story of the Good Samaritan.
A man on a motor-bike stopped. 鈥淚鈥檓 a first-aider,鈥� he said, and asked some helpful questions. One of his colleagues, who had been driving past, came to join us. 鈥淵ou need to go to casualty,鈥� he told me firmly. 鈥淚鈥檒l take you.鈥� Later, as we talked, he realised that I was the vicar who had baptised his baby. That established a link between us, but it wasn鈥檛 the original reason why he had helped me.

Contemporary society is often portrayed as self-centred and hard-hearted. That was certainly not what I found when those two strangers rescued me from the side of the road, or when a briskly competent doctor and a cheerful nurse patched me up at the local hospital. Despite the catalogue of despair that can sometimes seem to dominate the daily news, I believe that even in our twenty-first century world there is still a wonderful amount of basic human kindness waiting to surprise us.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for all those Good Samaritans who bring us hope and help in our moments of need. Inspire us by their loving-kindness to show a similar care for those around us, reflecting the message and example of your son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.