It’s wild out there right now, one side screaming at another, the whole world split in half. You may be feeling if you don’t choose a side, you’ll get caught in the middle with both sides pounding you instead of just one. No lie. The world’s grimy, petty, and straight-up dangerous, no doubt about it.

           Jesus warned his guys they weren’t headed out for some chill field trip. The disciples were headed out on their own, charged with healing the sick and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven was right there. But it wouldn’t be an easy sell. Even between family members, his message would be divisive. His biggest caution was, “Be wary as snakes and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16) That was their whole survival kit for walking into rooms where folks were already squaring up as they headed into the thick of a fight, chins jutted just inches from another.

           Yeah, it can be a terrifying and menacing world, but to this fear Jesus dropped the first version of, “Look for the helpers,” wisely said by a friend of children and the child-like.  

“Anyone who welcomes you is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.” The ones who see you, the ones who welcome you, the ones who recognize God’s fingerprints on your life even when you don’t. This broad form of hospitality might not be found in a rally of supporters chanting your name. More often it’s found in the quiet ones who see more in you than you see in yourself.

           Regardless of status, whether it’s the big shots, the established hierarchy of principle and the prophetic, the ones grinding to do the next right(eous) thing, or the least of all, ones at the bottom, the most vulnerable, marginalized, victimized and oppressed in body as well as spirit, look for them. Find them. Welcome them. Give to them.

           “Even a cup of cold water.” Even. Just a cup. Cold water, that’s it. Nothing fancy.

Nothing extra. A tiny gift that says, “I see you. You matter. You’re not alone.” A small, simple act that keeps somebody alive another day.

And somehow in that little bit of giving, that tiny stretch of generosity, heaven leaks through. Love leaks through. God shows up in the smallest cup you hand to the smallest one.

All preceded with, “And if you give…” It’s an offering that’s humble but vital to life, a giving that quenches thirst and demonstrates love. Yet in this extending of what little one has to the little ones and all ones, there’s an extension of the healing of heaven, a hope that reveals each is loved by Christ and loved by God.

           “And if you give…,” creates more. Meet someone in their own place and world, extend a sign of welcome and love, not discriminating between one or another but accepting all in the undeserved, giving grace of God. That’s where relationships are started, strangers become friends, and understanding cracks open. The Kingdom of Heaven gets close enough to touch. In this, “you will surely be rewarded.”

           All it takes is just a cup of cold water. No more and no less.

Matthew 10:40-42   

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The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

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