I wanted to provide an update to the last post, as more
has been revealed to me about our attempt to help the homeless men on that
little corner near my wife’s office. I
saw the FedEx man again one morning, and he was wearing the gloves from his
bag. I didn’t see any trace of anything
else, so I’m not sure what happened to the rest of it. I didn’t see the Beard man again, but one
evening, I saw a homeless woman crossing the street in front of my car wearing
the coat from Beard man’s bag. So,
apparently, he had shared his “spoils” with his friends. I saw the Oklahoma man on the next morning,
and he was wearing the coat from his bag.
Again, I didn’t see anything else, so perhaps he had also redistributed
some of it, or perhaps it was hidden away under the freeway overpass somewhere.
I know that this venture started out as God changing
lives through me, but it ended with Him changing my life as well. I am less put-off and less afraid of these
men of the streets. It may not be the
life I would choose for myself, but there is still a sort of family and camaraderie
between them. I saw acts of kindness,
acts of nobility, and acts of gratitude.
None of them acted entitled or deserving. They were all gracious and humble. When I compare that to many of the pompous,
stuck-up people I meet that are decidedly more well-off, I find the homeless
men to have a richer spirit. And the
bonds of survival between them is tied more deeply to brotherly love than the
ways that many of us treat each other.
