July 22
Scripture: 1 John 3:7
Source author: Linda Beach
July 22
Deere Love When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. —1 John 3:7
I’m thinking this week about our first neighbor, Polly. We were newlyweds, and Polly had just lost her husband. We found her at our door with cookies in hand. As we sat around the table eating them, Polly filled us in on all the news of the neighborhood. The next time my husband saw Polly, she was trying to start her lawn mower. Thinking she needed some manpower, Paul drove his mower to her yard and gave hers a few cranks. When it didn’t start, he mowed her half acre of grass with his John Deere. That night he said, “Polly just lost her husband and her mower doesn’t work. I think God wants us to help her.” That summer of helping our neighbor stretched into twenty-five more. All three of our children loved mowing, so there was always someone to help. This week as I told my daughter about Polly’s death, guess what she remembered? The mowing. “Yes,” I said, “mowing was our way of ‘loving our neighbor as ourselves.’”
Love will always find a way of expressing itself. — Linda Beach —