2. Perfect

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.'" Matthew 5: 43-48

*****

Perfect?
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say
The people who heard You preach that day
Had Your word "perfect" echoing in their ears
Just like it's echoing in mine.

Perfect?
That's downright laughable.
I mean, have You seen me talk to my kids
after a long day at work
and a lot of whining and bickering
(mostly by them)?

You wouldn't let me put them in the enemy category either
...would You?
So I can't even tout loving my neighbor
as a particular strength of mine.

When it occurred to me that maybe Your point was to be laughable;
To say something so clearly not possible
for us
that we'd know for sure
we weren't supposed to do it
without You.

And then it occurred to me
that maybe Your point wasn't
just to tell us we're not doing enough
(and of course we're not)
but that we're not even aiming to do enough.
How can we love anyone well
while we're busy sorting out whether they deserve it
from us...
as if we know?

And it finally occurred to me
(which I have a hunch is where you wanted me to start)
that maybe Your point was
to tell me that the sun and the rain
fall on me
and the evil
and the good
which is really to say
that we're all evil and good
and we all get sun and rain
undeservedly
and the best we can do
is love

and leave it to You to sort out
(or, I have a hunch, given the way the sun and rain work, not to sort out at all)
the neighbors from the enemies.