Hello

Day 38
Read Philippians 4

Therefore, my brethren, you whom I love

you whom I love and long for,

my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the LORD dear friends!.

I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the LORD.

Yes, and I ask loyal yokefellow, 

 help these women 

who have contended at my side in the course of the gospel, 

along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers,

 whose names are in the Book of Life.

Rejoice in the LORD always.

I will say it again rejoice!

Let your gentleness be evident to all. 

 The LORD is near.

                                                                         Philippians 4:1-5 (NIV)

The following is  from a book called Images,
Images of a Christmas 1995
Of a Woman
The service now over, the last hymn sung, the pastors and audience begins to fill the foyer.  Slowly, the once silent hall, becoming a symphony of sound and movement.  The congregation now a real life opera.
All around people greeted each other, laughed and joked, passed the time with family and friends.  There was, however, one conspicuous by her silence.
A slender slip of a woman, in her early forties, neatly, but plainly dressed.  She stood against the mirrored walls, beside the sanctuary doors staring at the floor, glancing only occasionally at the crowd, to whom she seemed invisible.
I watched for nearly ten minutes, as I went about my work.
People talked all around her, yet no one, not even an usher, once turned to say...
“Hello.”
I knew, I knew her from somewhere, but couldn’t remember where.  So my work finished, I approached her and said “Hello”.
Her smile went beyond words, a blessing from God.
Turns out, she’d been coming for several weeks with no one ever speaking to her.  We had a mutual friend with whom she’d travelled the world.
She was a missionary.  From age twenty to forty, she’d lived away from home, giving of her youth in Africa, Europe and in Asia.  Proclaiming the word of God.
Yet, here she stood in the middle of one of the largest churches in the area, with no one ever stopping to simply say...
                                    “Hello.”

“And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourself were aliens in Egypt”

                                                                                                                               Deuteronomy 10:19
Something to think about:
How would you react to seeing such a person in your church? Do you even notice someone like that?
In the portion of Scripture I quoted from Philippians 4, Paul asks that the Philippians look after some people who have laboured with him and looked out for him.
This should also be an admonition to us to look after those missionaries and pastors who have laboured all their lives for the Gospel.  To ensure they have all they need.  To help them in anyway we can.   All too often, unfortunately, this does not happen.  If we can’t ensure those in our church are greeted and looked after, how can we expect to reach out to those outside of the church.