Who Is My Neighbor

Here is some food for thought.

God Bless.

Several years ago, I was in Copenhagen, Denmark on a remarkable vacation and heard a story that gives new meaning to the answer to this question. We have all heard of the atrocities of the holocaust and its tragedies, but I had never heard the remarkable story of this nation. There is a little fishing village which is a suburb of Copenhagen that opened its arms to the Danish Jews during this terrible time. The fishermen let it be known that if you showed up in the village at the appointed time you would be evacuated to safety. In this way, 95% of Danish Jews escaped deportation and execution. This in itself is enough to show their concern for their neighbors, but there was more. 

After the war, when the people returned home to Denmark, they returned to their jobs, their homes, their properties which had been cared for and kept safe by their Christian neighbors. It made me consider how often I go out of my way for a friend, let alone others I may not know. It makes me ponder how well I live out the command to love my neighbor as myself. Would I have been as generous as the Danes under those extreme circumstances? Could I be that generous today? Do I know my neighbors well enough to tell when they might be in trouble? These are questions that I will ponder long after the pictures are looked at, the vacation stories have been told, the souvenirs given away. I hope that having the experiences I encountered on vacation will make me a better person, one who doesn't pass by, or look the other way, when a neighbor is in need.

-Author Unknown