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"God, in his great mercy, accepts us exactly as we are. Who could ever stand if God's faithfulness did not endure?"

Before my day with Mister Rogers comes to an end, I ask if I can take his picture. "Oh, let me take your picture," he says. "I love taking pictures of people." I sit on his couch—he wants the illustration of X the Owl and Henrietta Pussycat in the background—and he takes my picture. Tom Junod says that before he said goodbye, Mister Rogers prayed with him. His heart at first felt like a spike, but when Mister Rogers prayed it opened like an umbrella. Mister Rogers gave us something in those moments. In giving, he bid us to receive. And in receiving, we took hold of grace. We became his neighbors.

Mister Rogers wrote something for Chris de Vinck's collection of essays in honor of Henri Nouwen. A neighbor, he wrote, is

someone who has helped you see beyond the obvious. … perhaps a person who, like Henri and many of us, longs for deep friendships and reaches out to others in response to that longing—just as our God reached out to us through Jesus the Christ our Lord.

"How are you?" asks Henri.

"How are you?" asks Jesus.

"I love you, as you are."

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March 6 2000, Vol. 44, No. 3