Betrayal

A neighbor sees another neighbor's children playing outside. He looks at their driveway and sees no car in the driveway. "A one-year-old and six-year-old at home alone", he thinks. "That's terrible, I'm calling 911." The police come. Nobody is at home. They shrug their shoulders and leave. Social Services comes. Nobody is at home. Social Services asks loaded questions of neighbors standing outside that can only lead to answers that are not helpful.

The neighbor comes home with his family to find a paper on his door from Social Services. He is, understandably, immediately upset. He is a Hispanic from LA, whose wife speaks very little English. She was at home earlier, but their car had broken down and they had to operate with one car during the last few days. It looks like she is not home when she really is. When he moved into the neigborhood two years ago, he made it a point to talk to all the neighbors and make it clear that he wanted to be a good neighbor to them; also, offering his services although he was a man of lesser means than them. One of his trusted neighbors, has betrayed him and called the authorities and he now is "on the radar" of an agency of government that operates entirely outside of constitutional restraints. He is now guilty till he proves himself innocent.

"And ye shall love the stranger..." Deuteronomy 10:19

Later, a visiting social worker looks in his refrigerator and sees little if any food. The neighbor has to defend himself, pointing out that he would be out getting food if she was not at his house filling out paperwork and "investigating" at 10 o'clock in the evening.

Why would a true neighbor expose another good neighbor this abuse? "If they were concerned, why didn't they ask my little girl where her parents were before they called 911?", he asked.

Scary stuff. Scary because it could happen to anybody. Scary, because someone else's opinion now governs the lives of your children. We say we live in a free country, but we don't. However, that's not how we are really fooling ourselves. We are fooling ourselves by thinking that someone else needs to take care of our responsibilities. Being a good neighbor would mean taking the risk of checking first before turning a matter over to ungracious authority. How about offering to watch the kids if both parents have to be gone? How about offering one of the extra cars if one is available in time of need?

Instead of throwing a neighbor "under the bus", how about being the good neighbor instead? The government cannot help you with that. Another one of those "only God can help with that" things. Life is full of those things that remind us that we keep forgetting about God and His perspective.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'... 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30