April 3, 2008 – A Story: "The Christian Thing to Do"

Last night, after our gathering on the Mount of Olives, Pastor Holman's wife Marcia drove our group back to the hotel in the van that belongs to the church. Along the way, she had this story to share about the van we were in.

About a block from the Holmans home is a Hospital of the Red Crescent, the Arab version of the Red Cross. It serves as one of the primary maternity hospitals in the region.

One day Mark and Marcia Holman were driving past the hospital in the van and spotted a young Palestinian woman walking away from the hospital, carrying a tiny infant in one arm and pulling a suitcase on wheels with the other.

Marcia commented—not quite seriously but more for ironic effect—“It would be the CHRISTIAN thing to do to offer her a ride.”

Suddenly Mark stopped the van, turned around, and doubled back toward the woman. “What are you doing?” Marcia asked. “We're offering her a ride,” Mark replied.

The Holmans speak very little Arabic; the woman spoke no English. So, trying to make their good intentions clear through smiles and gestures and such, they did their best to communicate that they wanted her to get in the van and let them take her home. She was very cautious and reluctant, with all the protective instincts you'd expect of a new mother.

Finally the woman took stock of her situation and—if you saw the Holmans you'd understand how they are incapable of looking particularly menacing—she decided to get into the van.

They drove away and the woman pointed out every right and left turn. The van wound its way down the steep, uneven roads deep into the valley. and they just kept going—roughly about five miles according to Marcia's estimate.

When they finally arrived at the woman's humble home, they were greeted joyously by the entire extended family. The woman explained to her family what the Holmans had done for her and they were insistently cajoled with invitations to come into the house and join in the celebratory homecoming feast—which Marcia says would hardly qualify as a feast by our standards but was nonetheless the best and most these very poor people could put together. (Marcia's eyes fill with tears here as she continues.)

And since you never refuse hospitality in the Middle East, the Holmans came inside and celebrated among the family of this tiny newborn whose mother had heretofore been in the impossible predicament of having to carry baby and luggage five miles on foot over rugged terrain on steep, winding roads.

We take our conveniences and amenities for granted, don't we? We need to work harder to share and distribute the resources of which we are intended to be responsible stewards more equitably, don't we? As Marcia said, “It would be the Christian thing to do.”