Thur, 09/07/17, "Day of Praise"
"Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'" - Matthew 25:37, 38, 40
I have a tendency. What about you? In particular, I have a tendency to want to see things my way. What about you? Of the many things, that we can learn from Jesus in today's Bible verse, one of them is definitely that it's good for everybody when we ask God to help us see things from a perspective other than our own. One of our church leaders helped me do that a few hours ago. Our kids and a guy named Carl helped me do that a while back.
It was the beginning of a vacation, and we had stopped on our way. Our daughter, Calley, was walking toward me with one of the homeless bags that our church puts together. The homeless bags are gallon-sized ziploc bags with a Bible, water, crackers, and other small encouragements. I couldn't see anyone that Calley might give the bag to until I stepped beyond a garbage can where there was a small man with very weathered skin, who looked very much like a leprechaun.
In a few moments, our whole family was visiting with the homeless man, whose name was Carl Novack. Carl had lost his wife and children in a car accident. So he wandered.
Carl was very nice and well-spoken and asked for nothing. But he was very appreciative when we gave him the homeless bag. He talked about the Lord and clearly knew Jesus personally. And Carl smiled a huge smile when we shared a number of nice golf shirts that had been given to us by generous family and friends. Carl told us he'd wear the shirts in the evening, which was when he enjoyed singing Country and Western to no one in particular.
The point of all this in connection with today's Bible verse is not that we were righteous, but instead that Carl Novack was like Jesus. Carl gave us much more spiritually than we gave him materially with a homeless bag and shirts.
I would've missed him altogether. But Calley spotted him because she was looking. And all of us were blessed by one who was certainly like Jesus to us.
And who knows? Maybe he was.
"Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'" - Matthew 25:37, 38, 40
Praise God!
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