by Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
An Italian woman named Marinella Beretta was found dead sitting in her chair at home, the news reported this week.
She had been there for at least two years.
This sad story was discovered as police were checking on her after a windstorm and toppled tree concerns.
The neighbors said had not seen her for at least two years, but had assumed that during the pandemic that she had moved away. No one had checked on her to see what had really happened.
In Italy nearly 40% of people over 75 years of age live alone.
While this story happened in Italy, the United States is not immune to this type of thing happening either as there have been similar reports here.
“The real sadness,” said Italian press, “is not that others did not notice her death It is that they did not realize Marinella Beretta was alive.”
Proverbs 31:9 tells us:
Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
This is more than advocating for those who need money or homes.
Ephesians 2 offers a reminder that we, as God’s children, are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens, neighbors in God’s kingdom.
So what about the neighbors in your area? The ones that we kinda notice and kinda don’t notice. We know they are there, but we know little if anything about them.
Christians are called to love our neighbors.
If our church is to grow and multiply like God has called our church to do, it begins with loving people and noticing their lives and not just mourning their deaths.
It begins with us looking out for those who are placed in our lives each day and seeing how God is leading us to be involved in their lives and be the hands and feet of Jesus.