People in your neighborhood

By Robert Hurtgen

For 33 years, not including reruns, Fred Rogers dawned his zippered cardigan sweater and blue sneakers welcoming boys and girls into his studio, his neighborhood and the wonderful Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Week after week, we became his neighbor, all the while being taught to be better neighbors ourselves.

We each have four types of neighbors.

We have those acquaintance neighbors. Those are the people you have a loose connection with. You know them, they know you, but they really do not know you any more than you know them.

These are the people you may follow on Twitter but do not recognize when they sit down next to you.

We also have occasional neighbors.

These are the people you see every now and then. They have your coffee ready at the coffee shop as you step to the counter because they know what you order.

You talk to them at the grocery because they are always working when you are shopping. On occasion, you see them, they see you, and there is a connection.

We also have cause neighbors.

Cause relationships are those people you gather with for a specific cause.

They attend the same fitness class you do. Your kids are on the same soccer team. You serve on the same board of that volunteer group.

There is a cause, an issue that connects you together.

There are also those casual neighbors. Those people you relax with. The people you want around to laugh with and share a good meal.

Casual neighbors include immediate and extended family, friends, those you go to church with but connect on a much greater level.

These are the people who make you feel refreshed after you have been with them.

God has placed many people in your life. Your neighbors, whether occasional or casual, are not an accident. Acts 17:26 reads, "And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place."

You are where you are, when you are, by God's design, but you are a neighbor by choice.

God has put people in your life to be their neighbor. We need to see each other, especially when we do not know the other, as someone the Lord has seen fit to be in your life.

Mr. Rogers' question still lingers, "Won't you be my neighbor?"