Care

“Care” is one of those funny words that we believe we know the meaning but when hard pressed, can really only give hand-waves about. It can be either a verb or a noun, an action or an act, an emotion or an activity.

With that kind of ambiguity, it is not a mystery we often miss the mark of how to care for or about one another. The Friends University theology professor, James Bryan Smith, writes this about care/caring:

“How does God care for us? God cares for our spiritual life, God cares for the health of our soul, and God provides for our physical needs. God is available, God listens, and God never abandons us. This is how we are to care for one another.

Jesus also left us a clear picture of how to care for one another. He never discouraged people, He spoke the truth in love, and He gave of His time and energy to meet the needs of those around Him. He received the poor and the sinful in the same manner as He welcomed the rich and the righteous. He loved all people and wept for their pain. We are given the model of how we are to treat one another in the example of Jesus.”

Often we do not recognize how we care for others or how what seems like a very little action impacts another. I distinctly remember feeling overwhelmingly cared for at two particular times in my life. (I’m sure there are others but these are the two which even to this day, make me feel cared for.)

In one instance, I had a terrible head cold, not bad enough to stay home from work, but bad enough to be miserable. Mind you, I’m not the best about down time when I’m not feeling well. I’m more of a “suck it up” girl. Jake, a woman I worked with, noticed and brought me a lemon tisane. It was hot and lemony and for some reason, touched me to the depths of my soul, that she took the time and energy to care about, and for me.

In the second instance, my husband had undergone successful but incredibly difficult surgery for esophageal cancer. He was progressing well enough for me to be back at work but it had been a long hard haul. I was tired and worn out. Another of my co-workers, a woman named Beci, brought me lunch every day for at least a week, maybe two weeks. Homemade lunch!! It was done with no fanfare, it just appeared in the work refrigerator with my name and with reheating instructions. And it brought me joy and comfort.

It wasn’t the tisane or the lunch itself that made me feel cared about/for. It was being visible enough to someone to be cared for. Whether it is breakfast fish over a fire after a long night fishing, or loaves and fishes, or lemon tisane, or spaghetti squash with tomato sauce, the evidence of “I see you and I care about you”, strikes at the very heart of our often struggling human condition. It comes as the dawn after the long night of darkness.

It is gathering up and the smoothing over of Christ in each of us reaching out to a world with pain and anguish and head colds and bumps and bruises.

Merry Christmas.