Micah 6:8 states, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (New Revised Standard Version)“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 New Revised Standard Version)
In my last column I spoke about the first requirement of our Lord in this passage: to do justice. The second requirement is do love kindness.
Recently I have been hooked on watching short video clips online. Which ones catch my eye the quickest? Those that depict people helping one another in various types of trying circumstances, people rescuing cats or dogs from deplorable situations and helping resurrect the joyful, playful puppy or kitten they were intended to be, and those showing animals that are supposed to be natural enemies getting along and caring for and about one another.
Acts of kindness. Stopping what you are doing for just a brief moment to help make another’s difficulty easier with which to cope.
The videos of people rescuing animals and doing whatever it takes to rehabilitate them shows a kindness of heart. These folks go above and beyond to help save the life of a helpless or fearful animal.
And those videos that show cats and owls playing together, adult dogs taking care of orphaned kittens and vice versa, a chicken who took care of kittens, a deer playing chase with a large dog. What a joy to watch and ponder, “Why can’t people be more like that?”
The videos depicting people helping one another in difficult situations speak to me. I find it moving that a large, athletic, scary looking man stops what he is doing to help the proverbial little old lady across the street, or the one showing a woman helping a tearful little girl find her lost mother in the large mall.
A picture I saw bears a mention. Two little girls, an African–American and a Caucasian, came across each other in a mall. They were wearing the same little dress with the same cartoon hero on them. With their arms around each other’s shoulders in a “this is my buddy” stance, one girl declared to her parent, “Look Mom! We’re twins!”
I love that sentiment. Why? Because both girls saw what made them the same, not what made them different.
Yes, we human beings could learn a thing or two from kind animals. Differences that we allow to separate us need to be overlooked and ignored. We need to look at a need and fill it, not at a person and try to determine if they are worthy enough of our involvement.
We are required by God to love kindness because it is good. My next column will take a look at the third requirement – to walk humbly with your God.
The Rev. Mark Broadhead is pastor at Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church of Crestview.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: FROM THE PULPIT: Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly, Part 2