the good samaritan retold (read)

One day an inquisitive child asked her parent’s, “what do I have to do to be with God forever?” And her parent’s replied, “Love God, and love everyone as you love yourself.” “But do you really meaneveryone?” she asked, “and what do you mean by love?”  In response her parent’s told this story and of course she knew it was a real story because it began with:
“Once upon a time…”
Once upon a time in the city there lived a man who had lost his home and all that he had and was forced to live on the streets.  He almost never showered and his clothes smelled like the garbage cans he often dove into looking for scraps and anything else he might use or sell. He wasn’t always nice and could even be quite mean to a lot of the people who would walk by, even those who tried to help him.  One day as he was climbing out of a dumpster he slipped and cut himself badly and landed wrong on his ankle so he couldn’t walk.  It just so happened several times a week the man’s own brother past by that very spot on his way to work.  Perhaps it was the man’s way of staying connected to his brother or perhaps his brother made sure he would walk by and check on the man, but either way today his brother did walk by.  The man called out to his brother, “help me, I need your help,” but his face fell as his brother did not stop.  Perhaps he was embarrassed that this was his brother living on the streets, this was his own brother covered in filth and this day he just had no time for him he couldn’t face it, couldn’t deal with whatever issue his brother had right now. A little later as the man lay on the ground in pain, a social worker whose job it was to work with people like the man walked by and heard the man call for help, but she had helped him before and only received poor treatment and insults and she had used her name to try to get him a job and he hadn’t even showed up.  Instead of stopping to help she just kept walking looking for someone more worthy of her help.  After awhile a woman and her daughter walked by the man and as he called for help the woman clutched her daughter closer to herself, but the daughter looked up at her mom and said, “mom we need to help.”  Her mother didn’t even hesitate to reply, “no honey you are not allowed to go near people like that.  He is a stranger and he might hurt you.  There are people whose job it is to help people like that.”  She pulled her daughter along keeping their distance, but after only a few steps her daughter looked at her again and said, “but isn’t he God’s child too?”  Her mother looked back at her and then at the man and she knew her child was right.  He smelled as bad as ever and he was covered in filth and blood from his cut, but she had decided to help so they got him to his feet with some effort and with him leaning heavily on her they managed to make it to her car so she could drive him to the hospital.  As they got him onto a hospital bed she took all the money she had in her wallet and slipped it into one of his pockets before she left.  The man never thanked her and didn’t get her name, but she liked to think that perhaps her daughter’s unfiltered love and faith had reached him.
As the little girl listened to her parent’s finish the story she smiled and said, “you really do mean everyone.”  “Yes dear, everyone.”