Are there still Good Samaritans?

I was thinking again about how unique and really enjoyable it is to work with elderly folks in the Mountain View Healthcare and Park Place Apartments. As I thought about it as I went to bed, still thinking about work after a busy day, a bible story came to mind.  

It’s the story of The Good Samaritan. It is found in Luke 10:30-37. 

It is a story of a person who, "fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead." 

As I consider our elders at the facilities, it was immediately clear in my mind that we still have those situations where people are robbed and wounded on their journey in life. While it is not typically by a person, very often it is through robbers such as disease and disability. 

Each day we see people that are in need of compassion and caring because disease has ravaged their lives. Over 70 to 100 years of wear and tear has left many hands twisted, frail and distorted to the point of being nonfunctional. The staff of the facilities work diligently to return some function and normalcy realizing these are the same hands that made gardens, broke beans, and shucked corn. They did wash on a washboard, or rinsed it and wrang it out, hanging it on a clothesline before modern washing machines were available. They worked many hours in shoe factories and shirt factories in the area. These hands that have been harmed by life’s wear and tear are most importantly the hands of the ladies and men that picked us up when we fell, or wiped our brow when we were feverish as a child.

A second type of robbery, is the robbery that occurs to our senior saints as they begin to lose the ability to walk and stand and bear weight. These folks once were strong, they used their legs to walk many acres behind a plow and a mule, or as we see in Mtn. View, they worked many years in the timber behind a team of horses or mules, the wear and tear on their hip joints and knees have robbed them of their ability to move about freely in their golden years. 

I could go on and on about the different types of theft of the person’s dignity and physical well-being that life’s toll has taken from these beautiful elderly people we have in our community and our facilities. 

But I want you most importantly, with this letter, to realize in Jesus’ parable that many people saw those terrible issues the man faced lying on the roadside after being robbed and mistreated. Jesus describes essentially three responses. Two similar and one very different. 

First, “by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side." Second, “a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came, and looked, and passed by on the other side.” 

Next and last we see the real hero, Luke 33 - "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 - So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”

There are still people in the community who, due to advanced age, debility and chronic illness, will fall helpless under the influences of joy robbing and physical limiting theft on the roadside of life.  

What is wonderful in this story that Jesus shared is on 1211 North Ash Street we still see many, many of what the parable declares as the Good Samaritan. 

Each day as the world goes on and people seem to miss out on the needs of others that they might be able to meet; those that come when the robbers and thieves of the elderly; those physical infirmities, and disease process that attack and do their terrible work of disability; and theft of dignity with their outcomes, I’m really glad that there are those who work at 1211 North Ash Street in Mountain View that will go across the street, figuratively and reach out and minister to those who they see in need. 

Every day people from various towns get in their vehicles and drive to work, knowing that there are people who are depending upon them to meet their every need. We see that there certainly are still Good Samaritans that exist in this world and they come day in and day out, 24 hours a day and do their best to carry out a Christ-like ministry to the aged and infirm. They are not afraid to cross over the road to the other side and be seen offering of themselves for those who live in our community who are in greatest need. 

While we just experienced the wondrous Easter season, let’s not forget to let the Good Samaritans who live in your communities know they are noticed, with an expression of thanks. If you see them in Wal-Mart or the grocery store in their uniforms or Mtn. View Healthcare t-shirts, please take time to particularly say to them, I am glad there are still Good Samaritans, and I just want to thank you for being one of those to our elderly.

Yes! There really are still Good Samaritans. I am privileged to work with a great number of them at 1211 North Ash Street. 

 

God Bless,

George Colbert, Administrator