Recently something happened to me that has never happened before. If I am quite honest, it was over something, I will usually tease other people about. I left my cell phone on top of my car, while I was driving. In case you are curious or are wondering, that is not an ideal place for a phone to be. Cell phones shouldn’t necessarily ride on the top in case it falls off and breaks or gets run over. Anyway, but in my infinite wisdom, I forgot to remove it from the top of my car when I got in my car and started driving.
I wasn’t completely aware of this situation. I just assumed I left my phone at the office when I got to my new destination and didn’t have it with me. However, as I am sitting drinking my tea at the tea shop, behind the scenes, a stranger found my phone, posted it on facebook, asking a whole bunch of people to share it and if they know who the phone belongs to. Then he also brought it to a safe location, where I could eventually pick it up.
I obviously did find out my phone had gone missing. I got a call on my work phone from my supervisor who in turn had gotten a phone call from my mom, who had seen and been notified on facebook about my phone being missing. I lost my phone, without any stress in trying to find it! Talk about modern social media technology at its best. I am so extremely grateful for this man who found my phone and did everything in his power to find me as the owner and to keep my phone safe.
It can be very easy to do things for the people we love. When we love someone, we want to be kind and help them out to the best of our ability. It can be a bit harder to do this for a complete stranger or even someone who is an enemy. It can feel as though it has a lot less benefit to us. We don’t get the satisfaction of seeing our loved ones happy. We may not also receive the same kindness shown back to us when we are showing love to a complete stranger. However, sometimes we as people are so dependent on the kindness and the random love shown by someone we had never known.
I have always heard stories of kindness shown by strangers. There is finding a wallet and making sure the person finds it through all sorts of means, as opposed to leaving it where it was or stealing it for themselves. I have heard of paying it forward and paying for the coffee for the person next in line at the drive thru. I have heard of people stopping randomly to pray over those they meet in the street. I have always been impressed and inspired by those who have done this for strangers, and now I am even more inspired because of my own personal blessings from a stranger.
The Bible also gives a lot of verses when it comes to showing love, even to strangers. One verse that describes this love is Hebrews 13:2 which says, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” The whole chapter of Hebrews 13 describes different people we are supposed to love. He reminds people to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, prisoners, those who are mistreated, and strangers. He reminds his workers that through helping strangers, you may be showing love to God the Father. Remember that all people are in the creation of God, so this is the main reason we need to show love to all people.
The challenge for you this week is just as much of a challenge for you as it will be for me. My challenge for you is to do something really loving and really kind to a stranger. This has so many potential options. This could be paying for someone’s coffee that is behind you in the drive thru. This could be helping someone with a task they need to complete. There may be an opportunity that comes up unexpectedly, like me with my phone. Be willing this next week to show love, even to strangers.
Colossians 3:23 Blog 