Blog co-Author: Windy
yes, ……AND TOUCH SOMEBODY’S HAND
abridged lyrics of composers, Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson. Diana Ross made it a hit single.
Somebody’s hand
Make this world a better place
If you can
Reach out and touch
Somebody’s hand
Make this world a better place
If you can
Take a little time out of your busy day
To give encouragement
To someone who’s lost the way
Or would I be talking to a stone
If I asked you
To share a problem that’s not your own
We can change things if we start giving
Why don’t you
If you see an old friend on the street
And he’s down
Remember his shoes could fit your feet
Try a little kindness you’ll see
It’s something that comes very naturally
We can change things if we start giving
Why don’t you
Reach out and touch
Why don’t you
Reach out and touch somebody’s hand.
Reflection
We arise each morning and there’s water on demand at the washroom with tootbrush, toothpaste and soap complete. We head for the dining table after being dressed up and groomed – there’s hot coffee and breakfast ready.
The rest of our busy day flashes by and soon we’re back at home and so on and so forth.
We’ve become impervious as it were to the spectacle of human-suffering around us.
A true incident
This happened several years ago. I made a business trip to Southern Sumatra. As it is with travel and business meetings, our first meeting ended at past midnight.
I realized I had skipped lunch and dinner on that first day. I felt awfully hungry and alas! the Hotel’s coffee house was closed. I hurried out to find a meal at a nearby food shop.
As I walked past the hotel gate, I noticed a woman seated with a baby in her arms and her two daughters close by. They sat on the grass beside the road. I was so hungry I hastily walked past them and headed off towards the food shop.
Seated moments later at an empty table I ordered my meal and then I realized about the woman and her children. I excused myself and headed right back to them.
I asked permission from the woman to allow one of her daughters to follow me so that she could return with some packed food for all of them.
As I was about to finish my meal, two University Professors (who were at our business meeting) spotted me as they drove by. They stopped and were soon at my table.
I asked whether they saw the woman and her children seated by the roadside. They said that they had not seen her then added that I should not be influenced by it. “It is common here”, they said.
That answer and their explanation had me really upset.
I queried, “What if that woman is your mother? Would you just walk by and not help her?”
The following morning I abandoned the rest of my two-day business meetings with this group of University Professors and returned to my home country. I ended the business venture with this group of University Professors in Indonesia.
The Judgment
Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 34:40)
Windy’s Point of View
How can we say that we love God Whom we see not but we are unable to love (reach out) our fellow brothers and sisters whom we see?
General Santos Time
