Strangers. Our world is full of them. And the world of technology is creating more of them every day. We buy gasoline and never speak a word to the dozens of people responsible for getting that product to the pump where we swipe a credit card.

We make an ATM withdrawal or a direct paycheck deposit in our bank, and never learn the name of the cashier behind the counter.

We browse “reality TV,” where intimate details of the real lives of our fellow citizens become entertainment before our voyeuristic gaze — and we become strangers ourselves, an anonymous audience.

We live in a world of strangers; people who have needs and loves and desires. We see them every day — and yet, particularly when they are in need; particularly when they are not there to serve us, it is so easy to escape the inconvenience of their humanity.

Jesus has plenty to say about strangers and our responsibility to “welcome” them — to show them hospitality, care, concern, assistance. Jesus challenges those who love him most to greet strangers as if they were Jesus — as if the stranger were as beloved to us as our Redeemer.

“When was it that we saw you?” we ask. And Jesus replies: “When you gazed into the nameless face on the evening news; when you read the overwhelming statistics of death and pain and poverty in your world; when you learned about the hundreds who were impacted by a flood or a tornado or a hurricane.... and your compassion drove you to respond. That’s when you saw me.”

Each time your congregation — each time each member in your pews — stops to prayerfully consider a contribution to Week of Compassion, you step just a little closer to the strangers who need us in this world. Jesus says, “Look carefully. You have stepped a little closer to me.”

Please use these materials to help your congregation understand the human connection between their offering and the lives it will touch. And thank you, for all you do to keep Week of Compassion responding around the world, around the year.

God’s blessings,

Johnny Wray