An Angel, a Scalawag, or “The Least of These?”

We’ve all seen them- especially since 2008 when the bottom dropped out of the U.S. economy. The poor, the jobless, the homeless. The man standing at the entrance of WalMart holding a sign:

“Lost My Job.  Please help.”  

I recently saw “this man”-and passed right by him. I said to my daughter later that week, after wrestling with it in my mind, “I feel bad, but how do you know if there really is a need? There are many churches in town prepared to help the poor.” Besides, what if he just wants drug money?” 

Her response was poignant. “Just that someone would be brought to the low point of standing there with a sign represents a need.”

I talked this over with my friend, Elaine. She, having a beautiful heart, keeps care packages in the back of her car for times such as this. 

The bottom line is this. 

It all belongs to God.  God is our Provider, and we are stewards of His economy.

So, a few weeks later when I was getting ready to join a former co-worker for supper at the Cracker Barrel and saw a young woman at the entrance with a sign, I parked the car and went to her, talked to her, gave her my cash. She had lost her job a few months back and had not been able to find another. She had a child. 

But I am not consistent. Two weeks ago, I was parking to go into CVS on a cold and rainy day. A man was sitting against the building, dressed warmly, but clearly this was not a place to be hanging out on a dreary day. I smiled at him and said hello. He smiled the sweetest smile in return. When I came out of the store, I was thinking, “I don’t have much money left this month. I hope he doesn’t ask me for money.” I kept my head down as I walked past him and got into my car, but I looked up as I pulled out, and he was still sitting there, not having asked for anything and still smiling that angelic smile. 

This week, actually is was on Tuesday, as I pulled into the Tuesday Morning parking lot, I realized that a car was about to pull into the side of me. I had looked-so, where had it come from?  It missed my car. I parked, and before I knew it, the other car had parked to the right of me and a man who looked to be in his 30’s had come around and was standing outside my driver’s door. “Ma’am, my mother and me really need some money for gas to get back home.“ 

I had heard this before …a few years ago when a man rushed toward me as I seated myself in my car in a secluded parking area after leaving the doctors office. “Don’t be afraid!” he’d admonished as he held my car door open while he asked for money for gas to get back home, but I was very afraid while I got cash for him from my pocketbook lying on the seat beside me.

If I had cash last Tuesday I would have given it to the man in the well-populated Tuesday Morning parking lot, but I didn’t. Instead, I offered to follow him and his mother to a filling station and use my credit card to purchase some gas for them. He declined. I offered to go into Tuesday Morning to see if they would allow me to write a check for cash. He said okay. Long story made short, the store had a policy against such, and when I went back out and told this to the man, he said, “Thanks anyway,” got back into the passenger side of his car, and he and his mother drove away.

God’s Word, and God’s Way, often make me uncomfortable because they take the illusion of  control out of my heart and hands and put it back into His.

God is my Provider.  He not only loves me; He loves others, and He wants to love others through me.

He doesn’t love me more than the Sign Holders. He doesn’t even love me more than the Scalawags. I am not smarter nor more prudent, nor have I worked hard enough to deserve a grilled chicken supper at Cracker Barrel or a new kitchen rug from Tuesday Morning more than the next person.  Nevertheless, He loves me, with a love that is way beyond my comprehension.  

This is what God says:

Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.  Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!  Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself.  Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.  Hebrews 13: 1-3

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me.  I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.  I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? 

And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ 

Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.’ Matthew 22: 37-40