Who Is My Stranger?

A night car wreck south of Calgary, Canada, left two Easterners, both students, without a ride back to Bozeman, Montana. Their mid-sized sedan had stopped, smashed and wedged partway under a tractor-trailer flatbed, against the big rear wheels. They were unhurt but shaken. They slept on the hotel’s main floor, after begging space from the owner. Pooling their cash, they afforded a bus ride for one, including all their back-country skiing and ice-climbing gear. Shouldering his own backpack, the other Easterner hitchhiked south, leaving before dawn. It was 340 miles to Butte, and 80 more to Bozeman. He had 24 hours before classes started.

Hours after crossing over the international border, late in the evening, a driver dropped him north of Butte, on US Highway 15. He waited hours for a car to pass. It passed. The sun set.

When the next car came, half an hour later, he marched into its path waving his arms, and forcing the driver to stop. He climbed in with his backpack, gushing his emotional story: car wreck, broke, hungry, alone, and hitching to Bozeman.

The cowboy Westerner drove the student into Butte, bought him dinner, drove him to a bus station, and then paid for a one-way ticket to Bozeman. The Westerner never said his name.

The Teacher asked, “Who was neighbor to the stranger who fell among robbers?”

They replied, “The one who showed mercy.”

“Go and do likewise.”

Let’s Pray: God of All, give us the compassion to help our neighbors and strangers on the highways and byways of our ecumenical lives. Amen.

A Truth: Go and do likewise.

Source: Luke 10:37