FENCES

They say good fences make good neighbors, but I don't know why people say this. I mean, I can agree when it comes to bad neighbors. If I have a bad neighbor (I've had one), you bet I want a good fence between us - a tall one.

But if I really love my neighbor, I'm not sure i want a fence between us, physically or metaphorically. How can I have an intimate relationship with my neighbor if there's a fence between us? Yes, I said intimate.

Intimacy. The word evokes different images in the minds of men and women.

Women envision long walks in the rain, a candle light dinner, conversations where deep feelings are verbalized (men, that means with words).

I don't think most men really know what intimacy means. To men, it invokes images of ... well ... um ... er ... you know ... and definitely not the kind of thing Christian men should be involved in with a neighbor. So it's a good thing that's not the kind of intimacy I'm talking about.

To Jesus, the word intimacy meant eating and drinking with sinners. Eating with someone in the first century was an intimate act. Eating with someone in the ancient world was a statement; not just an act of hospitality. When people ate with others in the early centuries, they were saying they were willing to be associated with - connected with - accepting toward - those with whom they were eating.

No barriers.

No fences.

And be blessed.