I heard the beautiful music played by Uncle across the room and I went out to sketch him. He turned around and asked me what am I doing to which I simply replied, “Sketching you.”

I suddenly had this thought that how many of us would like our lives to be interrupted for someone else? We are all busy creatures rarely pausing to rest and even more so to listen to that beautiful melody being played by the old lady at the corner of the street. We seldom drop by to ask how a colleague’s life is. What more with those whom we have never met or someone we are not even close with?

Recently, a housemate asked me to help braid her hair. In my mind I know I have plenty of more “important” things to do. She interrupted me by showing the instructions in photos. I looked at the photos and immediately thought that this is complicated. Then I started having a role play in my head that if I help her and struggle with it we both might be wasting time. In the end I told her I don’t know how. She said she will try to do it by herself which is quite a challenge to braid her hair from the back.

I could have tried. I could have used that open door to get to know her. That might be a chance for me to talk to her about Jesus despite our language barrier. But I didn’t. I chose not to participate. I kept thinking more about the “relevant” things to do. But in reality there is nothing more meaningful than relationship and community. It’s all about people in this world. It’s all about other people when we live for Christ.

I think love our neighbors can simply be this: To be part of someone’s life and be willing to go into all the trouble because Jesus did it first for us.