Sorry for the absence. My son had emergency surgery a couple weeks ago and I had to make an unplanned trip out east.

One major learning during this experience: Simple human kindness is a big deal.

The morning after we received the distressing phone call that our son was in surgery I was on the first flight out of our small town and headed to Philadelphia with no plan except to get to the hospital.

As I journeyed I interacted with all kinds of people, many of whom heard my story and responded with kindness … a prayer, a hug, concern for my son, a discount on my hotel, an offer of an apartment, an offer to help back at home.

I was so touched by each act …

Did you know that the early Christians were often called “the kind ones?”

This was partly because the Greek word for “Christian” and the word for “kindness” were very similar.

But it was also because the early Christians were noticeably kind.

Kind to all - but especially to the sick, the suffering, the sad.

Kind, even, to their enemies, those who persecuted them, those who oppressed them.

I wonder to myself sometimes, would Christians today ever be called “the kind ones?”

I ask this because I have come to believe that kindness, above almost all other human traits, is intensely attractive …

I ask this because I love the passage in Romans 2 where Paul asks “… do you not know that God’s kindness is what leads to repentance?”

Be kind, my friends … be kind. For in doing so, we are mirroring the heart of our Father to the world.

And we are making another person’s journey more bearable.