Inspired by Daniel Nahmod’s lyrics to “A Kind Child”:
At the end of the day, what really matters is kindness.
What really matters is: to “put down roots, do some good, take somebody’s hand.”
At the end of the day, “You’ll know better than most
what really matters, what makes living this life worthwhile.”
What really matters is that “There may come a day when” someone – a teacher, a mentor, a friend – who has known you may remember you as someone who helped to “raise a kind child.”
Responsive Reading for June 28
Abram had a relationship with God. He knew that he would experience a more meaningful oneness with God if he could see God in other people and express God’s loving kindness to them. In the heat of the day, when he saw three men coming toward his tent, he prayed that they would let him welcome them. “Please do not go on past your servant. Let some water be brought, . . . Rest yourselves under the tree . . . let me bring you a little food, that you may refresh yourselves” (Gen. 18:3-5). Sarah made bread . . “And he waited on them under the tree while they ate” (Gen. 18:8). For their kindness, God blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son, Isaac, who grew to be a wise and kind man.
At the end of the day, what really matters is kindness.
Abraham’s servant Eliezer prayed for a sign to help him find the right bride for his master’s son, Isaac. If the girl whom he would ask for a drink of water would also offer to get water for his camels, he would know she was the one. Seeing Rebekah at the well, he asked her for a drink of water. “When she had let him drink his fill, she said, ‘I will draw water for your camels, too, until they have drunk their fill.’ … The man then bowed down in worship to the LORD, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not let his constant kindness toward my master fail’” (Gen. 24:19-26).
What really matters is: to “put down roots, do some good, take somebody’s hand.”
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6 NKJV); “The kindly man will be blessed” (22:9 NAB).
At the end of the day, “You’ll know better than most what really matters, what makes living this life worthwhile.”
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). “‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘What is written in the law? How do you read it?’ He said in reply, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ He replied to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this and you will live” (Luke 10:25-8).
What really matters is that “There may come a day when” someone who has known you may remember you as someone – a teacher, a mentor, a friend – who helped to raise a kind child.