It was a lazy Saturday morning.  I threw on red-plaid pajama pants from Gettysburg and a blue superman shirt which made my head his head, and sank into the Lazy-boy chair in our library to read my bible.  I had yet to draw on eyebrows or color on eyelashes, it was Saturday after all.  The kids  were in the school/play room taking turns picking a show to watch.  Barrett was still in bed taking advantage of a well-earned day off.  When Ronnie’s voice escalated in anger about his show choice, I begrudgingly got up to work the problem.  Before I burst past the French doors to their haven, there was a knock at the front door.

Through the wavy glass I could see an adult shape and a few little shapes.  I decided to own my own personal disaster and opened the door proudly to my albino, plaid, superman appearance.  “Hi!  My boys were begging to make you cookies so we could drop them off and meet your kids,”  was the greeting from the smiling ponytailed adult figure.  I wrestled back the exuberantly jumping Happy who led with his tongue, and gratefully took the tin foil covered treasure.  By this time my kids were staring excitedly at possible playmates which allowed Happy to escape outside to meet the other adult hovering over a stroller in our driveway…then Happy blindly crossed the road to wiggle with another unmet dog and neighbor.  I apologized with words since my features weren’t yet available to show them the horror on my face.  I grabbed my dog and invited the husband and final son to come on in.  For the next hour the three oldest boys ran around our house and yard playing joyfully with our kids.  When Barrett couldn’t sleep through the raucous any longer, he emerged to meet the Marine pilot and his family.  It was a really sweet time.

We had met the ponytailed Allison a couple days before when Barrett and I went on a walk with Happy around the neighborhood.  We heard kids playing so we went to investigate.  There were two families playing and we shamelessly said our kids needed friends.  The one family was moving so Allison eagerly asked where we lived so all the kids could meet as her kids playmates were leaving.  That became albino day.

The next night Ms. Pat came over carrying lasagna, bread, and chocolate cake.  She is a neighbor that lives across the street and has a small dog named Emma whom we befriended our first week here.  We invited her over for pizza and a movie night last week and she said she wanted to have us over for lasagna the following week.  She explained how she grew up in Italy and still loves Italian food.  “Absolutely!” we said.  So this became the night…except she wanted to bring it to our house.  “So, this is your favorite recipe for lasagna,” I asked?  “I didn’t make it,” she loudly laughed!  “Giant made it and I heated it up! The box said it fed up to twelve so I said, that’s good enough for me!”  We all burst out in laughter.  We sat around our table and told travel stories while eating our Giant meal.

I didn’t think this happened anymore.  Neighbors being neighbors.  Especially when it’s not on base, on a dead end street, or during a pandemic. Yet here we are experiencing the biblical mandate of people loving their neighbors as themselves.  We don’t all agree on politics, religion, or how to do school, but we see the value of relationships over partialities in the land of faces being hid and people being cancelled.  I am reminded of how the author of Hebrews wrote that we should not neglect meeting with one another as in the habit of some, but to encourage one another all the more as the time draws near (10:25).  What’s crazy, is that although the writer was writing to people of faith, the same biblical precedent works for everyone!  We don’t only meet with each other when we all agree or our houses are pristine…we meet in our mess.  We don’t only come together if we voted for the same guy or fellowship at the same church, we encourage the faint and brokenhearted no matter their background.  I can’t only answer my door when my face is drawn on correctly and we are all getting along perfectly because let’s be honest, that is a rare day.  My new neighbors have taught me this.  Lord help me to form this new/old biblical habit that loves others more than myself and in my mess.