Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Eyes that see the good in things- Dec. 17, 2018

I certainly love the change that’s taking place in my mailbox these days when I stop to get the mail. It was just last month that election mail was filling our mailboxes. But with the election over, those mailings ended and we are left with our normal mail. Which in our case is normally a not-so-fun blend of bills and junk. Then Christmas came, and suddenly, getting the mail became fun again!

Cards with beautiful wintry scenes, depicting that “Silent Night,” meaningful to those of us who understand the silence of a fresh snowfall. Cards that paint a lovely Christmas celebration, scenes we strive to re-create for our own family members. Cards that show the smiling faces of the people we know and probably don’t get to see as often as we’d like. Christmas letters where someone has taken the time to write about the things that have happened in their lives that year.

I will be the first to confess that, even though I love receiving Christmas cards, I am probably the world’s worst when it comes to sending them. I guess that makes me doubly grateful to those faithful people who continue to send cards, even when they don’t hear back from us.

This year, though, the words on the cards seem to be hitting me more than they usually do. Have you noticed the words on typical Christmas cards? Words like love, joy, peace, believe and blessed. One letter stood out to me this year and started this contemplation about the “words of Christmas.” The writer spoke about compassion, grace and mercy and how the faith we profess is all tied into Christmas.

Everything I’ve been reading this Christmas season seems to be colored by this year’s focus on Christmas words. This story on Facebook may have been one that you’ve heard before. I’ll be honest and say that I think the story is fictional, but it was important to me because it was so eerily similar to one of my own experiences.

This story was about a new pastor preparing for his first day at a large church and he wanted to get some insight about the people he would be leading. So, in the story, the new pastor scruffed up his hair, didn’t shave, donned dirty old and ragged clothes. That morning, the church parishioners were greeted in the parking lot by a shabby intruder wandering around their parking lot. He waved, nodded hello, and smiled at people who didn’t smile back but turned and looked the other way. He asked for spare change, but no one gave him any. No one offered him food or water. No one asked him about his story.

Then, he entered the church, ignoring the looks of judgement and he walked to the front of the church to take a seat. The ushers escorted him to the back of the building, while the rest of the church people avoided his eyes. It was uncomfortable but they felt justified, because he was certainly out of place.

When it came time to introduce the new pastor, they expected a highly polished minister. Instead, the scruffy man who they had deemed unworthy of even attending the service, came forward from the back of the building and began speaking from the book of Matthew.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. Matthew 25:35(KJV)

Had this story been real, these parishioners would have learned about compassion that day. Yes, this was a fictional story, yet it was a story that was so close to one of my own real life experiences that I had to read it again to make sure it wasn’t the same story.

My story took place when I was a very young adult, attending a medium sized church in a mostly Scandinavian, North Dakota community. It was a time when people still wore their “Sunday best” to church. The double doors to the church opened halfway through the service and a young man of a different ethnic group entered. He wore clean cut-off jeans, no shoes and his long hair was pulled back into a ponytail. The young man made his way to the front of the church and sat down on the floor in front of the pulpit where the pastor was speaking. The ushers at this church really did go to this young man and ask him to leave, which he did quietly. No one spoke up in his defense and I never saw him again. A lesson on compassion was missed. A chance to share our faith was missed.

Remembering that story made me realize that we all probably face times in our lives when we need to respond to situations like this. While this experience taught me that a lesson in compassion was necessary, it also taught me that compassion alone isn’t enough. I felt compassion for him. As it turned out, so did other people who were sitting there that day. But none of us had the courage to stand with him. Although it may have been inexcusable to lack compassion, it was even more inexcusable to do nothing.

It was the time in my life when this quotation became so important to me, “In order for ‘evil’ to prevail, all that need happen is for ‘good’ people to do nothing.” Others also learned the same lesson I did that day and I have faith that our response to similar situations would be different now. My only regret is that I don’t know who he was. We never got the opportunity to make amends, apologize and let him know that we wished we had responded differently.

Faith, forgiveness and hope…more Christmas words. My goal this Christmas is to accept the challenge to hold onto these words of Christmas and to reach an even greater level of hope for the coming year.

We would love to share local stories about the good things your eyes are seeing.

Stop in to share your stories with us, give us a call at 947-2417 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Or send a letter to Eyes That See the Good in Things, c/o Allison Lindgren, The Transcript, 6 8th St N., New Rockford, ND 58356.