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Tax season is coming, and many of us are organizing our financial records, getting ready to file our federal taxes. We await documentation of what was paid to us last year.
I am old enough to remember the television shows that portrayed characters having a bulging shoebox containing every receipt they received during the year. As they opened the lid, out sprung hundreds of cash register receipts and handwritten bills. Then began their task of sorting the pieces of paper into useful categories, adding them up, and using them where applicable. How different it is in our computerized world! Any way of keeping your accounts generates memories, reminding us where our hearts have been during the past year.
I am glad it is not just me who I have been caring for this year as I have paid all my bills. Should that be so, I am afraid I am more expensive than I am worth! However, there are three of us in my family unit, including my spouse, Bob, and our dog, Truffles. All of us are getting older and accumulating extra expenses. However, looking at where we spent our money this past year, I see that our hearts have not just been confined to our family and what makes us happy.
I see that donations of treasure, and often of time and talent, have also been shared throughout the year with many charitable entities. The charities include neighborhood food pantries and programs, libraries, homeless shelters, programs for those who are abused or in recovery, cancer treatment centers, hospice units, hospitals, nursing homes, support groups of all kinds, and places to help people transition into self-sufficiency. You don't have to go far to find people to help in our or any community. Not only do people need care, but pets and animals need care, as does our environment.
This week is part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a time Christians are encouraged to set aside to pray for the gift of visible unity. This year, the theme reminds us that Jesus taught that all human beings are neighbors and that, "You are to love the Lord your God ...and your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27 NRSVUE).
It is early in a brand-new year. This is a perfect time to look around and take stock. When one person's needs are overlooked or left unattended, all of us suffer. Each of us has resources: time, talent, treasure! Together we can make a difference.
Our daily jobs constantly contribute to the well being of everyone. Many were surprised, in the early days of the pandemic, to see just who was on the list of essential workers.
Sometimes it takes a whole village to solve a problem. Sometimes it takes a whole county, a whole country, even a whole world to make sure people's needs are taken care of. However, if we all wait for the person "over there" to do something, nothing is going to happen. It has to start with you and me reaching out to help the person right in front of us, the person right beside us, or the person right behind us.
Listen for those crying out in pain and reach out. No one should be forsaken or forgotten.
Listen and rejoice as we learn to better live and work together, loving God and loving all our neighbors near and far. We will see hope unfold in our world.
Rev. Gwen Bernstine serves as pastor of Lycoming Presbyterian Church, Newberry