Torn Coat and Weathered Hands

Homeless man with wind burnt face, standing on a corner, head hung in disgrace

Everyone just kept driving by as though he wasn’t there, heading to the mall like runners in a race.

The cardboard sign he held, had words scrawled out in sheer despair

“I am homeless, could you please help me?” As he stood hunched over in a ragged jacket, shoes with holes and shaggy hair

The saddest moments where watching so many passersby,  and no one showed not a care.

I told my care giver who was driving to turn at the next block and go back around;  she listened but didn’t make a sound.

We drove up to him by the side of the road, I rolled down the window and said “Sir please come here”, I watched him limp as he walked to the car

I took his weathered hand  as he shivered in the frozen  north wind and when I looked him in the eye,  I began to cry.

I told him I wanted him to know that God truly loved him (as I handed him a folded bill) then he smiled and said to me, “I know He does ma’am I have Jesus in my heart”

He thanked me several times, three times to be exact, but I told him he need not thank me, it was a joy to and that this  moment with him had made my day”

We spoke a while longer as he told me how hard today’s world is,  he said he’s tried to get help to get back on his feet,

Then he told me that sleeping in the frigid cold was the worst part of living on the street.

As we drove away I wondered how so many live that way, when 70 per cent of Americans are Christians, or so they say

No one should be without a home, a place of warmth and love… for our Lord Jesus has instructed us to share with the poor in every way.

Some so-called Christians would ridicule my deed and say, he’s just lazy or a drunken bum so let him live that way

And my response to them “Except for the grace of God that could be any one of us, for we know not why he’s homeless

And we need not consider why, God’s Word tells us “to give everything we have and nothing less.”

The true meaning of Christmas arose in my heart for the first time that day, as the stores all crowded with crabby folks no matter where we went

My patience was gone for reckless drivers, grumpy clerks and people hustling  trying to get a good deal

It took a homeless man, with torn coat and weathered hands, to show the joy of Christmas and the love of our “Jesus” so very real.

♥Streim ©

Matthew 1: 20-24  “But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,”  which is translated, “God with us.”