Mayday! Mayday!

When I was a kid, it was customary, on the first day of May, to surreptitiously deliver a tiny basket with a few flowers in it to neighbors. We typically hung them on the door knob and left, hoping we hadn't been discovered. It was fun for us kids, but as I reflect on the practice, I realize it is rooted in love. Jesus told His followers:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you..." (Matthew 6:1-4)

Now, I don't think many of the people that we blessed with "May Baskets" were needy in the physical sense. We lived in a middle middle class neighborhood. Certainly no one could get much nourishment from the few flowers we delivered (although later in life I learned about nasturtium flowers as a garnish in salads, and quite enjoy them, when I get the chance.) No, this kind of "giving to the needy" is more in the realm of the emotional or even spiritual neediness we all experience at one time or another. 

When Jill and I moved into our current home three years ago, we had no idea what to expect from our neighbors. We missed May Day that year, but the next year, we arose on May first to find that a neighbor had secretly distributed flowers to many of the homes around us. We were deeply touched by that little token of love from who knows whom. It was comforting to know that someone in the neighborhood had so much love in his or her heart. 

Now it is a couple of years later, and we are blessed to know many of the neighbors personally. We know first hand about the love that is shared in this neighborhood. From the young couple next door who shoveled the snow off of our driveway on the day after Christmas, to the couple across the street who have given, loaned or otherwise supplied things to us out of the goodness of their hearts, to the folks next door who were going through their own medical issues and still had time to help out, while I was fighting leukemia, this neighborhood is filled with loving people. And we are blessed to be able to return the favors from time to time

God alone knows what we would have done without our amazing neighbors while I was in the hospital and homeowner problems needed tending. It was such a comfort to me to know that they were looking after not only our home but my wife as well, while I was unable to do so. 

I am writing this on May second, because yesterday was as glorious a May Day as I can remember with better things to do than hammer on a keyboard. This has been a cool and damp spring. We set a record for April rainfall. And yet May Day 2022 dawned with a blue sky and temperatures in the mid sixties. If you missed it in the Bible passage above, we are taught that when we love our neighbors as God loves us, "...[our] Father who sees in secret will reward [us]..." Yesterday felt like that kind of reward. 

Jill and I started a project to renovate the planting bed in front of our home before I went to the hospital the first time. Now that God has granted me the renewed strength to do so, we are finishing the project. The bed has been ready for plants for a couple of weeks, and we had purchased plants about a month ago. Yesterday afternoon, we were able to plant all 24 of them. Amazingly enough, neither of us is feeling the worse for wear after what amounted to a good deal of exercising parts of our bodies that often go neglected. 

This morning, we awoke to rain; just what our newly planted garden needs to get it off to a proper start. We have tried to make the new garden as attractive as we can so that it will be a blessing to the neighborhood. Although it is our garden we were tending, and even though the neighbors know who is doing the work, we see this as a little act of love we can offer to make everyone's life just a bit more pleasant, and perhaps, fulfill a little need in someone's heart.