“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
“For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
(Mark 7:28-29)
Why would you call the foreign woman a dog, Lord? Surely, you did not say it to offend her, but to point out that you had come first for the children of Israel. Yet, you, yourself, had gone out to a city on the border.
You delighted in her answer, which showed wit and spirit as well as faith. Had you been testing her or testing the crowd? Perhaps, you were testing all who would hear or read this account.
Today, we hear so many complaints about our government helping people in other lands. A doctor told me recently that Doctors without Borders can provide health care to needy people far away, but there are so many regulations in our own country that they are unable to offer the same services here.
You teach us that we are to love without distinction gentile or Jew, woman or man, master or slave. We are all children at your table. There is plenty for everyone, as you illustrated when you divided the loaves and fishes among so many.
How can I be more generous? I am happy to give to those I see, but, too often, I fail to see. Something interrupts, and I forget. Please help me to be more attentive to you in my neighbors. Thy will be done.