Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Two Little Boys and Dirty Pool Water

 

When the world conditions so debase our imaginations into a devaluation of place, we no longer have context for faith in Jesus Christ. . . . It would never occur to us that the actual place in which we live and labor is adequate to support large spiritual enterprises like salvation and sanctification. And so it is necessary that a love of locale be recovered: this street, these trees, this humidity, these houses. Without reverence for the local, obedience floats on the clouds of abstraction.” Euguene Peterson, Take and Read


If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know I’ve tried to understand more fully what it means to be a neighbor in a community in which I struggled to feel at home for a long time. God’s invitation to me has been to be present in this neighborhood, consent to be where He placed me and pay attention. I am slowly learning. But the learning isn’t from any good I have done, it’s been through His orchestration of events in this season of life.


Two little neighbor boys and a very large wading pool needing emptied have created a greater connection between us and the neighbors on the east side of our home. Let me back up a bit. Just before everything shut down from COVID-19, the mom next door and her two grown daughters came over to tell me they were taking in two nephews, ages 3 and 1. And could I babysit the boys for a couple days until they enrolled them into daycare? I was dumbstruck. My head started reeling with thoughts of these two babies moving into new circumstances without their mama, and the first day they would be with me – someone they never met. Their whole world was changing. I said, “Yes” of course but by the time the little ones arrived everything was shut down and these uprooted little ones had lots of time to be in their new home and adjust to the changes without my help.


Our neighbors are close in proximity here in Southern California making it easy for me to hear and delight in the mumbled toddler prayers around meals and ABCs sung. New sounds drift across the fence: laughter, tired fussy sounds, toddlers screaming in frustration, and the oldest calling out “Jim.” We met the two boys when the neighbor brought them over to introduce us. Then there were birthdays. Upon delivering gifts I found myself gifted by the nudge of a one-year-old wanting me to hold him. I sat him on my lap with his back facing my chest and he put his fuzzy head against my face. How precious!


And then in the heat of summer they got a pool – a giant wading pool! Splashing in cool, clear water for hot days. Shouts of ‘Marco Polo’, squeals and laughter were heard day after day. In a few week’s time we noticed a water flow under our fence into the succulent bed and up onto the patio. We let it go. Since we live down slope from them it would be hard to empty a pool without it draining into our backyard. Days later the pool water turned dirty and murky from all the play and was emptied into our succulent bed and the patio.


My husband is a resourceful person, so with his idea planted in my brain for sharing, I made a visit. I kindly let them know our succulents will die with so much water. Who knew that plants could be over watered in the coastal desert? I presented the idea: Would they be willing to let us know when the pool needed draining and Jim would siphon it through a hose and water plants in greater need. They agreed and we did.


But after we started siphoning the way we worked evolved. Jim recognized it was a lot more water than he expected and it would take a long time at a slow drain. He borrowed his Dad’s pump and sped up the process. We hauled water in buckets where the hose didn’t reach. The three-year-old, Hugo, came and helped Jim water plants. And the daughters assisted on their end keeping things going.


One time the pool was so full, it was more water than we could use on our whole yard. So we asked the neighbors west of us if they wanted to fill up their rain barrels. Their whole yard is produce and they were happy to take the water. So two hoses stretched across our back yard connecting neighbor to neighbor. It was a wonderful thing. Being at home more with COVID-19 restrictions, we have interacted with our neighbors more.


I am reminded of Jesus’ answer when questioned by a teacher of the law, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”


Jesus didn’t answer the question but He expanded the answer with the second most important commandment. Though our next door neighbors are included in this passage, a neighbor isn’t just the next door neighbor. Jesus is referring to whomever the Holy Spirit brings across my path and tugs at my heart to love: see, hear, and help – give value in the way Jesus would. It can seem so ordinary at times. It can look like:


  • Giving a heavy duty grocery bag to a homeless man on a bicycle whose thin grocery bag has broken open


  • Genuinely asking the cashier how her day is going and saying a few encouraging words

  • Baked goods for a neighbor’s birthday or just because

  • Giving your two homemade cookies to the young woman at work who is looking for a vending machine where there isn’t one

  • A hot meal for a struggling family

  • Going the extra mile when returning a borrowed car, not only filling up the gas tank but also washing the car by hand and vacuuming it


Neighbors come in all shapes and sizes and acts of neighboring can touch upon any need. We can do this because we serve an all sufficient Shepherd. We lack nothing. We can never out give our Lord. How have you connected with people during COVID-19? Who’d you help and in what way? Who has neighbored you well? Can you recall a particularly wonderful neighbor – one you never wanted to lose? What made that neighbor so special? The neighbors of my childhood – the longest standing neighbors of my life up to this pointwas my maternal grandparents. And I could write a book about the wonderful ways in which they neighbored those around them. Consider how living fully where God has planted you might increase hope for yourself and others. Paying attention and responding to the people who intersect with lives is a gift of hope.

3 comments:

  1. Sometimes I do not pay enough attention to my neighbors. I'm just getting by and unaware. You bring a holy conviction to my heart and eyes.

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  2. Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful! Gartenpools

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