Neighbors

My neighbors have an interesting sense of what’s pretty. They are the ones with plastic blow up figurines that show up in the yard at every holiday season. Yep, you name the holiday, they’ve got a blow up toy to match it.

I bet you didn’t know they made blow up toys for memorial day. Well, all I have to do is look up and tada! It’s there. My neighbors put a new twist to ghetto. And lest you smirk when you look, the matron of the house stands guard at the window, waiting to stare you down from afar.

I’m afraid of her. She came up to me the first week I moved in and gave me the street rules. These guys are ok, those others aren’t, and by the way, a man was found dead in your house ten years ago.

As if I needed to know that…

One time a few weeks ago, she sent her son to accost me while I had an armful of groceries in my hands. You owe me $20 he said. Wait….what? And just as I began to answer, I saw her eyes from across the street, and stopped talking.

She makes me afraid. She has weird taste. And she knows where I live.

Yet I’m told to love her – that quirky, street monitoring, blow up toy loving, eye staring neighbor.

In Matthew 19:19, Jesus says this about her: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus is serious when he says “Shall”. There is no escape clause. There is no plan B. Figure out who your neighbor is and love him.

I have a feeling they didn’t have blow up toys in Jesus’ days.

Then again, I have a feeling He saw past blow up toys. I have a feeling He understood that blow up toys were cheaper, that kids don’t care what a toy is made of, and that people stare because they wonder. They wonder if the new neighbor could be a friend. They wonder if their kids will still be safe in the neighborhood. They wonder if the person driving with a fish on her car will treat them like Jesus would.

I’m looking at Santa’s sled full of blow up plastic toys as I write this, and I’ve noticed that my vision has changed.

Or maybe my heart is finally waking up.

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