Matthew 25:34-36, “The the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.”
After Thanksgiving the holidays led me to a place of self-pity and anger. The Holy Spirit trying to convict me out of my mood, but it took a call from my daughter asking from some advice, to finally move me past the mood.
It seems she had encountered a woman in the park the other day. She was tidy and put together, but out of place. Sitting on a bench reading a book she was accompanied by a dog and a suitcase. It made Katherine wonder. Why would she be reading a book, walking a dog, and have a suitcase? Then a day or two later she took a different direction home from work, and once again encountered this lady. Again with her dog and suitcase my daughter could not help but respond to the curiosity inside her. She asked the lady if she was homeless.
Sure enough she was, and with a tragic story like most have. The woman has a college degree and relied on some type of licensing for her income while she spent 8 years caring for an elderly dying mother. At some point she woke up with a shrinking income, detached from the workforce, making too much money for government aid, but not enough to find a place in New York. I will leave the whole story for Katherine to tell, but she ended up homeless.
The shelters won’t take her in because she has a dog. She won’t give up the dog because it’s elderly and they would just euthanize it. So she somehow manages an existence on the streets of New York City having long sense had her dignity stripped from her.
Katherine wanted to know what she could do. She asked if she should write her story, publish it on the internet, and solicit help from other… what she wondered? I told her yes to it all. Follow the Holy Spirit. But no more dogs!!!
My daughter like us all can be moved by the compassion, and it is so natural to want to do something to better the person’s situation. In fact we should try to better the situation if it is within our means. That is a command of the Bible, but this is not the point of the encounter. None of us are rich enough to solve poverty. None of us in our ability can meet the true needs of those we encounter. We have to simply be obedient to what we hear. And more importantly have to understand that it is not about them. It is about us.
What was the common thread of the scripture reference? They are all acts done to Him. Jesus says, I was… and you did it to Me. The act is secondary to the encounter with Christ. These encounters with Christ in someone who is in need is there so that we can overcome fear, prejudice, offense. They are there to act as if money, power, and time are not our gods. They are an opportunity to live the relationship with Christ that our lable of Christianity claims.
I have said this before and it so totally applies here. God hides the keys to His Kingdom in the people that most offend us. Get past the offense and discover the key. A key that opens treasures in heaven.
Get it? I hang out with people like Robert not because I am the answer to their problems. I hang out with them because they are the answer to mine. Hidden in them is a Jesus I need to know.
We are not there for them... they are there for us as an opportunity to encounter Him.
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