Lectionary Links (NL): April 7, 2019

Fifth Sunday in Lent

Year 1: April 7, 2019

Miss Hazeltine’s Home for Shy and Fearful Cats by Alicia Potter

(Written for ages 5-8)

Comment: In Miss Hazeltine’s Home for Shy and Fearful Cats, Miss Hazeltine takes the time to look after the cats who are most frightened, and who, by some people, are considered worthless. One of those cats is Crumb, who along with the rest of the fearful and dismissed cats, are valued by Miss Hazeltine. She takes the time to care for them, house them, and teach them. Her efforts come back to her when she falls in a pit in the dark and Crumb is brave enough to organize the other cats in coming to rescue her. Her care for the least of these comes back as a reward for her. In Jesus’ parable of the sheep and goats, the separation is determined by what each group did for the least of these. They did not realize at the time how their efforts would end, but at the judgment, Jesus says that doing for the least of these is the same as doing for him. Those who invested their time and efforts and goods into the least of these have that come back to them as a reward. Like Miss Hazeltine, it is always worth our time to invest and care for the least of these, of the people around us. And Jesus assures us that any time, effort, or goods we put forth are always being done on his behalf, and those efforts will come back to us in the end.

Thanks to Sara Anne Berger, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Nachitoches, LA, for writing the Year 1 Narrative Lectionary Links.

Lectionary Links (NL): April 7, 2019 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.