My
Friend
Daniel
I sat, with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint
restaurant just off the corner of the town-square. The food and the
company were both especially good that day.
As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the
street. There, walking into town, was a man who appeared to be carrying
all his worldly goods on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign
that read, "I will work for food." My heart sank. I brought him to the
attention of my friends and noticed that others around us had stopped
eating to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and
disbelief.
We continued with our meal, but his image lingered in my mind. We
finished
our meal and went our separate ways. I had errands to do and quickly set
out
to accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat
halfheartedly for the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that
seeing
him again would call some response.
I drove through town and saw nothing
of him. I made some purchases at a store and got back in my car. Deep
within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: "Don't go back to the
office
until you've at least driven once more around the square." Then with
some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the square's third
corner. I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the storefront
church, going
through his sack.
I stopped and looked; feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet
wanting
to drive on. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign
from
God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the
town's
newest visitor.
"Looking for the pastor?" I asked.
"Not really," he replied, "just resting."
"Have you eaten today?"
"Oh, I ate something early this morning."
"Would you like to have lunch with me?"
"Do you have some work I could do for you?"
"No work," I replied. "I commute here to work from the city, but I would
like to take you to lunch."
"Sure," he replied with a smile.
As he began to gather his things, I asked some surface questions.
"Where you headed?"
"St. Louis."
"Where you from?"
"Oh, all over; mostly Florida."
"How long you been walking?"
"Fourteen years," came the reply. I knew I had met someone unusual. We
sat
across from each other in the same restaurant I had left earlier. His
face
was weathered slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet
clear, and he spoke with an eloquence and articulation that was
startling. He
removed his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said,
"Jesus is The Never Ending Story."
Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times
early in life. He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences.
Fourteen years earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had
stopped on the beach in Daytona. He tried to hire on with some men who
were putting up a large tent and some equipment. A concert, he thought. He
was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival services,
and in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to
God.
"Nothing's been the same since," he said, " I felt the Lord telling me to
keep walking, and so I did, some 14 years now."
"Ever think of stopping?" I asked.
"Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me. But God has
given me this calling. I give out Bibles. That's what's in my sack. I work
to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads."
I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission and
lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then
I asked:
"What's it like?"
"What?"
"To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show
your sign?"
"Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments.
Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that
certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to
realize that God was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts
of other folks like me." My concept was changing, too. We finished our
dessert and gathered his things.
Just outside the door, he paused. He turned to me and said, "Come Ye
blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for you. For
when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink,
a stranger and you took me in."
I felt as if we were on holy ground. "Could you use another Bible?" I
asked.
He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was not
too heavy. It was also his personal favorite. "I've read through it 14
times," he said.
"I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and
see." I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he
seemed very grateful.
"Where are you headed from here?"
"Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park coupon"
"Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?"
"No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star
right there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next." He smiled, and
the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission.
I drove him back to the town-square where we'd met two hours earlier, and
as
we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things.
"Would you sign my autograph book?" he asked. "I like to keep messages
from
folks I meet."
I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had touched
My life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of
scripture from Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you," declared the
Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a
Future and a hope."
"Thanks, mam," he said. "I know we just met and we're really just
strangers,
but I love you."
"I know," I said, "I love you, too."
"The Lord is good!"
"Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?" I asked.
"A long time," he replied.
And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend and
I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed. He put his
things on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, "See you in the New
Jerusalem."
"I'll be there!" was my reply.
He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling from his
bedroll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, "When you see
something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?"
"You bet," I shouted back, "God bless."
"God bless." And that was the last I saw of him.
Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold
front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car.
As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw them.... a pair
of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the length of the handle.
I picked them up and thought of my friend and wondered if his hands would
stay warm that night without them.
Then I remembered his words: "If you see something that makes you think of
me, will you pray for me?"
Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to see the
world and its people in a new way, and they help me remember those two
hours with my unique friend and to pray for his ministry.
"See you in the New Jerusalem," he said. Yes, Daniel, I know I will...
If this story touched you, forward it to a friend!
"I shall pass this way
but once. Therefore, any good that I can do or any kindness that I can
show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again."
From the internet...Author Unknown to me.
God bless and have a nice day!
"Father, I ask a special blessing for my friends, and relatives, and
my new friends
reading this right now. Shower them with a new revelation of your love and power.
Holy spirit, I ask you to minister to their spirit at this very moment.
Where there is pain, give them comfort, where there is confusion bestow
upon them your peace and mercy. Where there is
self-doubt, give them renewed confidence through your grace, In Jesus'
precious Name. AMEN
|