At the beginning of this week, I signed a lease for a house here in SoCe. I have never rented a house on my own before, so I found myself anxiously caught up in all of the details moving into my new place.

"Have I set up the water? Who do I call for that?" "Oh, trash is not provided by the city here?" "The gas company can't come and set up the gas until Monday next week? Oh no!" "When am I going to move my bed into the house? I don't have a truck?" "What are my neighbors going to be like?"

As all of these thoughts went through my head, I made a mistake in setting up one of my services. I had opted to do a self set up for my internet service and ordered it in a rush at the beginning of the week. I did not realize that it would get to the house three full days before I moved in...

Tuesday afternoon, I receive a text from the rental company. "Hey there Ryan, there was a package delivered to the house today for you. Your neighbors picked it up for you and said you can come by anytime to pick it up. The didn't want anything to happen to it."

Wow!

I do not know my new neighbors yet and they do not know me. We are not even technically neighbors yet. But, sometimes neighboring extends beyond us knowing each other.

When we care about our neighborhood, we hold space for our neighbors who have not quite made it to the neighborhood yet. We are present and hold space, looking out for our future neighbors, knowing that it will make a difference in their lives if we welcome them before they have even arrived.

I am certainly grateful for my new neighbors, even though I have not met them. I look forward to discovering who they are and the gifts they will bring.