Compassion

I couldn't believe what I saw out the kitchen window the other morning! Down in the corral, a young goat (we call it a baby goat) had its horns caught in the fence that separates them from the pigs. An older goat was ramming the helpless baby's side with all her might, over and over! I thought she was going to kill him!

Still in my pajamas, I left the sink and ran out on the frosty grass, grabbing a broom and jamming the big goat through the fence. She stopped momentarily, then began her attack again. Surely she wasn't trying to free the little one, I wondered.

When I couldn't stop her, I hurried back to the house and found my gentleman farmer getting his shoes and coat on. He was able to get inside the pen and free the victim, who staggered to the shed and collapsed, lying there for a long time before he got up again.

Animals! They are such animals! Not that we don't see that trait in people sometimes, when they are mean or unkind to their fellow man. Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. A lawyer had questioned Jesus as to how to have eternal life, then after he gave the right answers to Jesus, including "Love thy neighbor as thyself," he asked, "Who is my neighbor?"

After Jesus gave the examples of the priest and the Levite who passed by the wounded traveler, He says in verses 10:33-35, "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. (34) And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, a set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

(35) And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."

Finally He asks who was a neighbor to the wounded man. The answer was the one who showed mercy. Then Jesus said, "Go, and do thou likewise." A good example for man or beast!