By Rance Settle, Senior Pastor, Lamb of God Lutheran Church
For one night at the end of October, my whole street comes outside.
Porch lights come on. People I’ve only waved to from the car all year are standing in their driveways with a folding chair and a bowl of candy. Kids I’ve never met tell me exactly what they’re dressed as, and their parents hang back on the sidewalk and laugh. For about two hours on trick-or-treat night, a neighborhood actually looks like a neighborhood.
Then it’s over. The garage door goes up. The garage door goes down. And I go back to knowing the make of my neighbor’s truck better than I know his name.
I’m not scolding anybody here. I’m the worst offender on my own block. Life is busy and tired and running late, and a closed door asks nothing of you. But we weren’t made to live like that, and most of us know it.
Here’s what I love about the Christian faith. God did not stand at the end of the driveway and wait for us to walk down and introduce ourselves. He came to us. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Jesus took on our flesh, walked our streets, and went all the way to a cross to bring us home. He knocked on doors that had every reason to stay shut. He still does.
He came into our neighborhood first. That’s what frees us to step into it. And loving a neighbor starts with knowing one. So leave the light on a little longer this fall. Learn a name. Ask one real question. Not to earn anything from God, and not to impress Him. He has already come to you.
“We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
