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To
Meet Such A Man
A
Wonderful Experience
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 for 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 store front 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 equations.
"Where're you headed?"
"St. Louis."
"Where're you from?"
"Oh, all over; mostly Florida."
"How long have 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
he 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?" I asked.
"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, man," 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 it's 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.
"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."
Contributed
by
Eranga
Jayalatharachchi
Defining
Moments
Archives
Copyright
© 2006, Jace Carlton. All International Rights Reserved.
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