I’m not a horsey person, but it seems to me that it’s about time for our equine friends to put on their summer eye wear, those fashionable masks that protect them against flies and gnats. Warmer weather brings out bugs, and horses need help to make it through the summer without serious eye infections. If their two-legged owners don’t supply the fly masks, one of their four-legged friends is standing by ready to help. As a child I always wondered who taught horses out in the fields to stand the way they do—side by side and head to tail. It seems to me they would rather stand with their heads together, looking in the same direction. Later I realized they were actually helping one another. One horse’s tail swishes the other’s head and visa versa. With this simple act, they keep those annoying and pesky insects away. God has given horses a natural understanding of how to help one another and to be in a position to receive help in return.
When we think of someone who is helpful, we often think of the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. It’s so universally familiar that people who help others are often called Good Samaritans. Here’s the short version: A traveler is beaten, robbed and left to die on the side of the road. From the context, the man is probably Jewish. Three people pass by and only one stops to give assistance. Jesus makes a point of identifying this person as a Samaritan. This non-Jewish person provides help by giving immediate aid as well as taking the injured man to a nearby Inn and paying for any care that will be needed. He went above and beyond what was expected of him and even more so since Samaritans and Jews were enemies. Because of this, he’s now remembered as the “good” Samaritan.
And the stunning revelation Jesus was making with this story? Anyone who is hurting should have our attention—no matter who they are. Everyone is our neighbor and even though there are people we don’t know well or even particularly like, they deserve our compassion. But it doesn’t end there. Later in one of John’s letters to believers, he brings this command to love others into the church. First John 3:17 explains that whoever “beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” This person is not a stranger; he is a brother in the Lord. This is not a horse sidling up to a cow to swish the flies away, but this act of kindness is happening within the family, horse to horse as it were.
Paul reminds his readers to “serve one another” through love and repeats the command “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:13-14). Peter exhorts readers to “keep fervent in your love for one another” (I Peter 4:8), and serve one another as servants of God’s grace (v.10). John reminds us that this love for our neighbors, our brothers, is not just with “word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (I John 3:18). Don’t just talk about someone’s problems, sidle on up and see if you can help. Helping a brother in need puts you in a position to obtain something as well, blessings from God and being on the receiving end when you’re in need.
Is there someone that needs you to stand beside them, someone who can’t deal with their problems alone? Perhaps God is calling you to be a fly-flicker today.