Safe Spaces: Loving Your Neighbor By Offering Refuge
And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that any one who kills any person without intent may flee there.
We all make mistakes. When we make mistakes, we usually hurt someone else.
We might not mean to hurt them, but we do. We generally do not mean to make mistakes, but we do.
Sometimes we are not the ones who make the mistake, but are the victim of someone else’s mistake. We fall victim to someone else’s false accusation, or misplaced anger, or simply encounter someone else’s hatred and evil intent—for, sadly, there are people with hatred in their hearts and evil intent on their minds.
Sometimes we hurt others. Sometimes we are hurt by others. In those times, we often need a safe space—a place to shelter, and to stop, and to work through what must come next. For those times, we are called to provide a safe space to our neighbors, that hatred and anger and evil intent may be thwarted by mercy and compassion and love.
When God transmitted His Law to the Israelites through Moses, He commanded them to create cities of refuge, places where people could flee from the anger and wrath (righteous or otherwise) of others and be safe. This was a fulfillment of an earlier commandment given by God in Exodus 21:13:
But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee
Likewise, Jesus, in His parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-40), teaches the moral imperative of aiding those in need by providing safety and comfort.
When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’
In Isaiah 25:4, the prophet praises God for giving shelter and comfort to those in need.
For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the blast of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
If there is one thing we are called to do, it is to provide safe spaces to the vulnerable around us. This teaching appears time and again throughout the Old and the New Testament.
We are called to shelter the poor, defend the weak, comfort the afflicted. In all of this, we are called to offer safety, mercy, and compassion towards our fellow man.
As with all callings, by doing this we glorify God, and magnify His teachings. Whether we get this teaching from the Bible or from some other source (for giving the oppressed and the vulnerable a safe place of refuge is an almost universal ethical principle among the cultures of the world), when we shelter the poor, defend the weak, and comfort the afflicted we are directly confronting all that is evil in the world, and by so doing making this world a slightly better place.
There can be little doubt but that the world stands in sore need of such safe spaces, and the good and generous hearts who can maintain them. We have but to turn on the news to witness the horrors unfolding daily in places such as Ukraine and Gaza. We have but to watch the news to see all the ways people are victimized and hurt in this country (and around the world).
Whenever a person is hurt, or is accused, or is pursued, in that moment we are called to provide a safe space for them. In that moment we are called to receive them with love and tenderness and compassion. In that moment we are called to heal their body, heal their minds, and heal their souls—for surely healing is the essence of all safe spaces and places of refuge.
Jesus Himself teaches us how to provide that safe space, as we see in His parable of the sheep and the goats: we provide food and drink; we make people welcome; we clothe them; we comfort them when they are sick or suffering.
We do not need to have fancy credentials, or extensive education. We but need to have a generous heart. We but need to choose to extend the helping hand, and to stand between the one needing the safe space and whatever violence threatens to come down upon him from the world. We but need to show tenderness and compassion. We but need to have mercy.
Surely there is not anyone on this earth who cannot offer up a generous heart. Surely there is not anyone on this earth who cannot offer the helping hand, and offer that safe space (both physical and emotional/psychological). Surely there is not anyone on this earth who cannot show mercy. Surely there is not anyone on this earth who cannot offer some healing to his fellow man.
We all can do this. We all are called to do this.
When asked by the Pharisee what the greatest of God’s commandments was, Jesus also reminded the him of Leviticus 19:18, that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It takes no great insight to see that we begin to show love to our neighbor when we offer him refuge from all that is evil in the world. It takes no burst of wisdom to see that by offering safe spaces to those around us, we are showing the love to our neighbor we are called to share.
There is much evil in the world that lies beyond our limited means to confront and to overcome. Yet there is much that lies within our reach, and which we are called to confront and overcome. When we create places of refuge, when we make ourselves the safe spaces people need in this world, in small but sustainable ways, we are changing the world for the better.
We are called to love one another even as we love ourselves. It necessarily follows that we are called to offer up safe spaces to all who are hurting and in need. We are called to be the safe space the weak and the vulnerable need especially, that there might be safe spaces for us when we are the ones hurting and in need.
The essence of every safe space: comfort, compassion, tenderness, and mercy. When we offer these we demonstrate love not just for a neighbor, but for all our neighbors—exactly as we are called to do.
Great post! Amen!
Do you see how beautifully your soul is evolving, Peter? This acknowledgment of the supreme importance of kindness and caring is not the sentiment of a young, testosterone-fueled adolescent who is fixated on competitiveness, dominating, and conquest. You have grown to be wise. God is Love, and Love is caring, and I see that your motivations are pure of heart and spirit. And God forgives us of all of our youthful mistakes as we travel the path to true understanding.
When I’ve read biographies of famous people, a common phenomenon that is recorded is the person’s last words before passing from life. He will suddenly open his eyes wide and say something like, “None of it mattered!” - and then he’s gone. All of the competitive climb to wealth and power, all of the strife and vengeance, all of the earthly rewards of corner offices, awards, allocates, and titles were pretty meaningless. What matters were the caring acts he did in life.
The early Christian church wrestled with the question of how much aid should be given to those in need because, of course, you can give until you literally die from becoming a sacrificial lamb. The amount they agreed upon to give was 10%. But it had to be given freely, out of love for another.
The people today who are calling for all cities to be sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants have their hearts in the right place. But they miss the mark, because through forcing some people to serve others, they harm the innocent and fill peoples’ hearts with resentment. Voluntary charity is caring, but socialism is enslavement. If they could see that distinction, we could move on to becoming a truly caring society.