After I went to bed last night I had one of those “ah-ha!” penny-dropping kind of moments as I saw that across the span of my day, God had done another one of those full circle things.
In the morning, Miss 6 had chosen “The Good Samaritan” story book off the Pre Prim shelf for me to read to her. Its about the third time this year even though there are always fresh books, so I think she must like it. As I read, I wondered if the story version had been embellished a bit so when we finished, I opened the trusty Bible app on my phone and read it to her from there.
As I read, I was struck with the geography of the story. Now I’m not strong in the area of mapping but some time ago I did get very interested in where the towns of the Bible actually are in relation to each other, so going on memory I thought, Jerusalem and Jericho are across from each other, but Samaria is way to the north! So this chappy, TGS, was well out of his home region. Which explains why he took the injured dude to an inn but what struck me is that TGS was on a journey and a mission of his own. He was in a region not his home and helping someone was even more inconvenient than normal.
But he did it.
So not only did Jesus use someone of a nation the Jews typically hated (and were hated in return) to illustrate His point, but He added dimension to the story by setting it at a distance from the Samaritans home. The Jewish law expert got doubly stung. Particularly as the question that he asked of Jesus directly before He tells the story is this: “And who is my neighbour?”
Then a few hours later in Koorong, the ONLY book I pick up to glance through, on the very first page I see, is a map showing Jerusalem and Jericho across from each other and Samaria to the north. Yes! Love it when I get geography right!! Jerusalem to Jericho perhaps a days walk, and depending on where in Samaria… about double that distance. Jesus COULD have set the story IN Samaria but have only made HALF the point. But without knowing the lay of the land, we miss the other half. Yes I’ve known the Samaritan was on a journey, but it seems God wanted to make a point to ME yesterday in understanding more completely this fact.
And then the third part of the circle was my trip into the city… my discomfort and reactions to the people on the street… some wounded in their lives and minds and choices, others not-so, but all very impacting and thought provoking.
And then the complete full circle moment in bed, as I saw the beginning of the day, reading the Good Samaritan to Tarri – and the way He stepped me through a complete experience in Him.