Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
Ray and I have heard news reports about California wildfires and mudslides for years. On Sunday we saw the results of those tragedies up close. From a distance, we saw the charred remains of vegetation on the hills north of Santa Barbara. It was people who helped us see the tragedies up close.
On the route south from Simi Valley, where the Reagan Library is located, to the beautiful Spanish town of Santa Barbara, tall hills rise to the east and the Pacific Ocean spreads out to the west. The cultural heart of Santa Barbara is the Santa Barbara Mission, one of twenty-one Spanish missions from San Francisco to San Diego along the El Camino Real. Locals call the Santa Barbara Mission the queen of the missions. I can see why.
Spanish architecture is everywhere in Santa Barbara.
We even saw a Spanish 7-Eleven®! The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is another grand Spanish structure.
It was good to see God acknowledged above an entrance to the courthouse with these words: “God gave us the country. The skill of man hath built the town” — Varro.
After touring the mission, which I hope to write about at some point, we went to the Sunday arts and crafts market, which has displayed local crafts on Sundays since 1965!
This water bird posed for me as we walked over a bridge along the craft fair route.
In front of the mission, several young girls about eleven years old held signs inviting people to a bake sale to help mudslide victims. When we stopped by the bake sale, one of the girls behind the table told us they were raising money for a mother and daughter who were still in the hospital.
Our last stop in Santa Barbara was the Syuxtun Story Circle. The circle is a visual history of the Chumash people who lived along the coast of Southern California and on some of the Channel Islands.
The tile story circle is located at the site of one of their historic villages. I couldn’t really get high enough to take a good photograph, . . .
. . . but this detail of the circle gives you an idea of its beauty.
A musician who was playing on a bench near the circle told us more about the mudslides. He pointed out the town of Montecito on a hill beyond Santa Barbara, telling us that he lives there and also telling us his personal experience while the mudslides were happening.
When Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was growing up, his mother gave him wise advice about how to handle painful events. She said, “Look for the helpers.” I am grateful that last weekend I got to hear a man tell about his own experience in a tragedy, and I am especially grateful that I got to meet little girls who were some of those helpers.
And he answered,
“You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your strength, and with all your mind;
and your neighbor as yourself.”
Luke 10:27