Our God is a compassionate God. Not only does the Holy One suffer with us in our struggles along the way, the Beloved sees us through whatever difficulties we may face, in whatever way we may need. From the beginning of scripture we find stories of God’s compassionate hand at work in the world. When Adam and Eve were cast our of Eden, God made clothes of skin for them. When the great flood was coming, God inspired Noah to build an ark to save a remnant of life. When the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt became too much to bear, God sent his servant Moses to free them. In our first lesson today we see God having compassion on the widow of Zarephath (a foreigner, not an Israelite), restoring her son to life through the prophet Elijah. And the psalmist today notices God’s compassion in giving justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry, in setting prisoners free, opening the eyes of the blind, lifting up those who are bowed down, caring for the stranger, sustaining the orphans and widows. In our epistle lesson, we may recognize that it was God’s compassion for all of us yet to come that turned Saul, the zealous Jew, into Paul, the zealous Christian apostle to the Gentiles. And in our gospel lesson we see the compassion of God acted out through Jesus’ raising another widow’s son from the dead. Throughout Jesus’ ministry we find him having compassion on the hungry, the sick, the tired, the grieving, the seeking, and meeting their needs.

Christ Jesus came to show us “the way, the truth, the life” (Jn.14:6) that God calls us, each and all, to live into, to be an example for us of God’s merciful, self-giving, compassionate love in the flesh, to enable us to see the image of God in those who come our way. May we be open and available to be God’s compassionate hands and feet in our world today.