Somewhere in the memories of my childhood Sunday School class there is a painting of the Rich Man and Lazarus. I remember the rich man sitting at a table and under the table were two dogs and a man…Lazarus. Now, I always had Lazarus under that table with those two dogs until this Sunday when my painting was repainted by scripture. This past Sunday I read, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.”
Lazarus is not under the table. He is laid outside the Rich Man’s gate. He can’t manage to even touch any crumbs. His hunger is far from being satisfied…he longs for the food that falls out of his reach somewhere beyond the gate.
It was much worse than my childhood mind constructed in those early years…he was far from help, BUT help was close to him. The rich man knew his name because he uses it later on in the story. The rich man had passed by him…saw him…heard him…smelled him…noticed him….knew him….and did nothing. Nothing.
Now I ask….
Who is my Lazarus? Where is the soul that longs to eat from my table? Who is outside my gate?
Who do I pass by?
Who do you pass by?
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This lesson is still haunting me, in a good way. I pray I allow God to open my eyes, mind, and heart fully to those I encounter everyday.
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Me too, Mindy. I hope I see my Lazarus, because right now I can’t find him…where’s my gate? Could it be the “gate” is where we have opinions and stuff that shut people out of our lives in some way. Maybe I need to look at that. ooooo I think I have found one of my Lazarus’s!
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I think some might be those people we try to dodge or avoid, but who really just need a listening ear. Some are much easier to listen to than others, but I forget so often that those who get under my skin were also made in God’s image. I’m still praying for God to revel the ones in my life too. I pray I offer more than crumbs!
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I did not think about the crumbs. Wow. I can see me giving them crumbs just to make me feel like I did what I was suppose to do. Thanks for pointing that one out to me. I think I have to work on my relationship with someone who is new to the acres where you live…a certain person I encountered at school that I really don’t have a good opinion about. I am working on loving him where he is at…bad English, but good theology.
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