Carl, our homeless

​As we all know, we are in the season of given. We see folks without or standing at a red light with assign, we have a tendency to give more at this time a year then we do any other time. I am not saying if your reading this that this is the only time we give, or we have to give money to those that are standing at the street corner. I will be the first one to say that there are places they can go for help.  However, one particular man really hit me while I was waiting on my medicine at drive thru pharmacy.  
 
I had just left the mall from picking up the last Christmas gifts and drove over to pick my meds. I usually go in and talk with the pharmacist but on this particular day I went through the drive thru, again something I never do. As I pulled up, the pharmacist came to the window and he said it would be a few minutes, so I put the car in park and was listen to some Christmas songs and sang out loud. I just hope the intercom was turned off if not I should go apologize to that pharmacist for having to listen to that. 
 
Anyway, as I was sitting in my car I noticed this guy on a bicycle riding up to the dumpster that sat behind a chicken place. As I sat there, I watched him get off his bike and then climb into the dumpster. I thought, what is he looking for? Is he looking for cans? He is looking for stuff to sell? Then a switch went off and I didn’t hear the radio. Everything was silent around me. All of sudden I realized that was is he looking for left over pieces of food in the dumpster. 
 
As I sat there waiting forever for him to pop up from the dumpster to see what he came up with. His head pops up and he started to climb out of the dumpster with something in his hand and it was not cans. About this time the pharmacist was calling me over the overcome and apparently, he had been calling my name for a while and I didn’t hear him. As I signed for my meds I drove over to this man who was now riding away on his bike. When I got to him, my heart sank because this man had climbed into the dumpster for food and in his hand was a piece of chicken breast that had been thrown away the night before. I stopped him and asked if was he about to eat that and he looked at me and said yes sir I’m hungry and I’m sorry was I not supposed to be in the dumpster? Please, I don’t want to get in any trouble he said. 
 
My heart just broke, I looked at him and said you’re not in trouble and you’re not going to eat that chicken. I told him to throw it away and let’s go get some warm food. Ok please don’t think this is about me giving him food because it’s not but don’t miss this next part. After we got his food, we sat down and talked. Everyone has a story and his story was unreal and amazing. Yes, he made some bad decisions in life which was one reason he was homeless, but it was the story about his Mom who died 8 years ago, that was amazing. He moved here from Miami to take care of his sick mother. After her passing, he was depressed, alone and lost.
 
Sometimes we have to slow down and listen to the story of our homeless. Remember, God can use others to bless us when we thought we were going to bless them. 
 
Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus was homeless? Jesus told those who wanted to follow Him, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Indeed, as Luke records the teachings of Jesus, he casually mentions that Jesus slept outside. “Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening He went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning to hear Him at the temple” (Luke 21:37-38). Yet, there’s more to consider. The Bible doesn’t mention Jesus owning anything other than the clothes on His back, which the soldiers divvied up at His crucifixion (Matthew 27:35). We dare not romanticize his lack of possessions in our modern minds as just “living simply” or “minimalist.”
 
So, when you look at someone who is homeless, see Jesus. Respond to him as you would respond to Jesus. Give to her as you would give to Jesus.