He went to him

"But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity." — Luke 10:33

The lesson this morning was the good Samaritan and I have taught it more times than I can count, which means I have also learned it more times than I can count, because that is how teaching works — you teach the thing and the thing teaches you, and the fortieth time through you notice a part you missed the first thirty-nine.

The part I noticed this morning was the ditch.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thieves, and they stripped him and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. That is the setup. The whole parable runs on a man in a ditch who cannot get himself out, and a road where people walk by, and what they do or do not do when they see him.

I said to the children, "What is the first thing the Samaritan does?"

A girl named Lily, who has been in this class since first grade and is now in fourth and has a question for everything, said, "He went to him."

That is exactly right and I told her so. Before the oil and the wine, before the donkey, before the inn and the two denarii, the man went to him. He crossed the road. That is the first thing.

I had eight children in the circle and they were quiet the way children are quiet when they can tell the teacher means it. There were coloring sheets but we did not get to them.

Caleb was in his chair and he was watching, the way he watches, turning his whole head. I did not look at him any more than I looked at any of them. I have seven other children in those chairs and every one of them is somebody's grandchild, and the job is the same job it has been for forty-nine years, which is to take the story and put it in the room and let it sit there and see what happens.

What happened this morning is that Lily said the first thing, and I said she was exactly right, and we talked about the ditch for twenty minutes, and nobody needed to be told to listen.

Luke says the Samaritan was moved with pity when he saw the man in the ditch. Moved. Not decided. Not persuaded. Moved — the way your body moves before your mind has caught up. That is what I hope those eight children felt this morning, even for ten seconds. The pull that says go to him before you have thought about whether it is convenient.

That is the job. Crayons in a coffee can and a felt board I have used since 1985 and a story old enough to carry itself, and eight children who showed up and listened.

Lord, they came to the room and sat down and listened, and that is the whole report.

Ruby keeps a collection of prayers at her kitchen table. You can find them here.