Living Up to the Challenge of Loving the Vulnerable

It’s becoming more and more clear to me that God passionately cares for the stranger, orphan, and widow. It comes up over and over again in the Bible, and today is no exception in the first reading. There’s a connection between loving God, loving our neighbor, and loving the vulnerable. 

Some of the biggest problems society is enduring right now call us to more deeply see the connection. The vulnerable surround us - the poor, refugees, children without homes, broken families, the lonely, the elderly, the abused, and so on. 

Do we see them? Do we care as passionately as God cares for them?

There is a widow next door to you, in your family, or in your church that needs some support and friendship. There is a child in your county that needs a family. There is a refugee, immigrant or stranger from a different land in your city that needs help getting on their feet. There is a vulnerable person closeby that’s barely making ends meet and needs some of the abundance you have.

Do you know who these people are? Have you encountered them? Have you done anything for them to show them love and care? What have you done for the least of these that God calls attention to today?

There’s a point in which love must go beyond our home and insular lives, and move outward.

The great challenges of our faith and followership of Jesus are to love God with our whole heart, love those around us, and love those who are most vulnerable.

Are we living up to those challenges?