Someone to Look After

During my second year of college, I was scouting around for a place to live, as my roommates had dropped out of school. One Sunday after church, the pastor put his arm around me and said, "I understand you need a room. Our daughter is in New Zealand this year as a foreign exchange student. If you'd like to stay with us, you may use her room."

To be honest, I really didn't want to stay with "the preacher's family." I was 19 years old and on my own. But then he told me how much rent would be: a ridiculously low figure that included one home-cooked meal a day. I thought about the offer for about a minute and decided to move in.

At the end of the semester, I had planned to find other living arrangements, since the daughter was to return home. But they asked if I wanted to stay on another term, suggesting I move across the hall and share a room with their son. By this time, I seemed to have been adopted into their family. Her people became my people, as it was put so beautifully in the old biblical story of Ruth. I happily accepted the offer.

As I vacated the daughter's bedroom, I thought it might be nice to have a little sister to look after. But when I later met my new sister, I realized the idea of looking after her might be more interesting than I first imagined.

We eventually fell in love, married, and have looked after one another for many years. There have been times that life turned out to be more challenging than either of us could have known. But we have always been able to go forward, largely because we knew somebody deeply cared.

It isn't about marriage, it's about love. It's about mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers and special friends who are as close as family. It's about anybody who can say, "I'll be around, you can count on me. I'll try to look after you and sometimes, I will need you to look after me."

Is there somebody you can depend on? And are others counting on you? We travel the path of life best when there is somebody to look after, and when someone is looking after us.

--Steve Goodier