February 2021 - LPNI

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February 2021

LPNI Devotion

Sharing the Compassion of God

I sat with Paul at the bedside of his dying mother, Edna. Edna had been living with dementia for about five years. Now she was in the final days of her life here on earth. I had gone to her room to read God’s word to her, to pray with and for her, and to commend her to God. As Paul and I sat in Edna’s room, there was a knock on the door. One of the care staff, a nurse, entered. She had finished her shift and wasn’t rostered to work again for a few days. Claire came into the room and knelt by Edna’s bed. She took hold of Edna’s hand and introduced herself to Edna as she did. Claire held Edna’s hand in silence for a few moments. She then gently, tenderly stroked Edna’s face, said goodbye to Edna, and left. Claire’s visit to Edna was simple but also profound. In those few, short moments, Claire demonstrated love, compassion, kindness and tenderness to Edna – her own, and God’s. Through her human touch and words in her God-given vocation of nurse and carer, Claire brought God’s love, compassion, kindness and tenderness to Edna in her dying days. God places all sorts of people – neighbours – on our path in our vocations. Some of these people are members of our family and our friends. Others are strangers and people with whom we wouldn’t normally have regular contact. Still others may be people we might consider to be our enemies. Each of these people is someone to whom we can bring God’s love, compassion, kindness and tenderness.

At times, there may be reasons – we may consider them to be good reasons – that we have for wanting to avoid some of the people God places in our way. The priest and the Levite in Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) surely thought that they had good and legitimate reasons for avoiding and ignoring the robbed and injured man whom they saw. In stark contrast to the priest and Levite in the story, a despised Samaritan had compassion on the injured man. He tended the injured man’s wounds, took care of him, and provided for his ongoing needs.

The compassion of the Samaritan in Jesus’ story points to God and his compassion for each of us human beings. Our sin, death and Satan work together to rob us of the life with God that he wants us to have. They leave us, not half-dead like the man in Jesus’ story, but dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1 ESV). God had compassion on his children. God gave his Son, our Lord Jesus, who demonstrated God’s compassion to us. Our Lord Jesus Christ had compassion on us by becoming a human being like us, by living a perfect life for us, and by his sacrificial death for us on a cross. God raised him to life again for us. God tends our wounds and revives our dead selves through his word of forgiveness, through the washing of holy baptism, and through the life-giving meal of the Lord’s Supper.

We, who are Christians, have received God’s compassion for us in Christ. God’s compassion to us motivates and empowers us to have compassion on other people. As we do, we bring God’s love, compassion, kindness and tenderness to people where they need it in their lives.

Rev. Andrew Bettison

1215 Grand Junction Road

Hope Valley, South Australia, 5090

abettison@lhi.org.au