For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me...as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
-Matthew 25:35-36, 40
I was on my way home from grocery shopping, waiting at a stop light. And so was he. He couldn't have been much older than me, and he held a small cardboard sign that read "Hungry and homeless, anything helps."
My eyes glanced from the sign to his face. I had a front seat full of groceries; it would have been so easy for me to share my food with him.
But I didn't. I looked away.
I did what so many other people do to the homeless. I looked away, pretended he wasn't there. I looked him in the face, right in the eyes, and I still looked away.
Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
-Matthew 25:45
I did not do what I could for this young man. I was Jonah, ignoring God's call to minister to His people. I have sinned not only against this man, but against God himself, and I have never felt the weight of sin so acutely. And, to tell the truth, I have never been so afraid for my salvation until now.
Father, I beg not just for forgiveness, but that you would change my heart. Make it one that would care for your people. And please, Father, provide for that man because I did not.
Honestly, this was probably the worst part of my trip to New York. Maybe it's because I live in Cape Girardeau where we pretend nothing bad happens and I"m just not used to a lot of homeless people sitting on the sidewalks anymore. I don't know. But I felt like almost everywhere I turned there was a homeless person on the streets of Manhattan. I just looked away. You want to help, but you don't, or you can't, or it's just too overwhelming.
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