My 16-year-old son and I stood shielding our eyes from the sun on an unusually hot afternoon at a four-track train station in Kent, England. We were looking for my friend, a vicar in the Church of England, who was to pick us up from the station. The vicar was hosting us at his vicarage for the weekend.
We were grateful for the ride, for it was hot, and we were carrying heavy travel backpacks upon our backs. The vicar texted not to purchase food at the station, because it was too expensive and not tasty, and he could easily make sandwiches for us at his home.
When he arrived, he embraced us and literally took the burdens from our backs as he ushered us into the car. At his home, there were cold drinks and sandwiches. His kindness overwhelmed us as, frankly, back home in Seattle, people simply have not been kind.
When the vicar told us that some of his parishioners were coming over to bring us farm-fresh eggs for breakfast because they heard a brother and sister in Christ were visiting from the States, and they didn’t want us to have to eat regular store-bought eggs, I nearly wanted to cry. This kindness was too much to bear.
The couple arrived with eggs in all different shades of brown and white but even blue and pink too. It’s as if they were magical eggs. This couple asked my son and me about our trip, our work, and our lives at home. Their interest in and care for us reminded me of the words in the letter to the Colossians, to clothe ourselves with kindness. They did indeed seem clothed in kindness.
Colossians 3:12 says, “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” St. Paul is reminding us that as Christians, we have a new self. We should no longer behave as our old selves without Jesus in our lives, with anger, malice, and slander. But as new creatures in Christ, we are to clothe ourselves with all the virtues of Christ. I love this metaphor of draping these virtues over our bodies. Our entire persona should take up these virtues.
That is what it felt like to be loved and treated with so much kindness by that sweet English couple and our vicar friend. I suppose we just needed to be reminded. To remember who we are in Christ. It doesn’t matter if others treat us with disdain or impatience, we are to be clothed in Christ.
And I must tell you, the next morning I had the best scrambled eggs of my life. The eggs even tasted kind.
Photo by Kate on Pexels.