Do You Care?

In the spring of 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers came to Cincinnati to play the Reds.  The first African American to break Major League Baseball's color barrier took the field.  Jackie Robinson immediately heard from the fans.  Some of the fans behavior of booing and heckling became so bad that the team captain of the Dodgers, Pee Wee Reese, walked over to Robinson and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Pee Wee Reese kind of sensed the sort of hopeless, dead feeling in me and came over and stood beside me for awhile."  Robinson recalled, "He didn't say a word but he looked over at the chaps who were yelling at me and just stared.  He was standing by me, I could tell you that."  The hecklers soon stopped.  "I will never forget it," Robinson said.

Mrs. Jackie Robinson later said, "I wanted to hug him (Reese) for everything he did for Jack and my family."  Joe Black, a former Brooklyn pitcher said, "Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the majors, the World Series.  When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time a White guy had accepted us . . . When I finally got up to Brooklyn, I went to Pee Wee and said, "Black people love you.  When you touched Jackie, you touched all of us."

What does it mean to care?  It means to care because someone needs care.  How do you show that you care?  You show that you care by doing something for someone.  Can you remember a time in your life when someone reached out and touched you when you needed it?  It may have been a financial gift.  It may have been a hand on your shoulder.  Whatever it was, perhaps like Mrs. Jackie Robinson, you may have thought, "I will never forget it."

We can touch the lives of others when we decide to care.  One of the great reasons for the church to exist in the world is to provide a place of caring as the local church.  A place where everyone can feel loved and accepted.  Out of that love comes a sense of mission to help the community in which we live.  The greatest care comes when we allow ourselves to be vessels for Christ to work through us.  The Great Commandment comes down to this:  "Love God, Love neighbor."  When we are faithful to that command, Christ can touch lives through us.  What greater way to show our caring than to alleviate or even remove the physical, psychological, or spiritual pain of another human being.  We show our caring when we let the Word go forth in our community and throughout the world.