Volunteer Reflections
Today I Saw Jesus By: Megan
Matthew 25: 31-40
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels of heaven, he will sit upon his royal throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. Then he will separate them into two groups, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The sheep he will place on his right, the goats on his left. The king will say to those on his right: ‘Come, you have my Father's blessing! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 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, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the just will ask him: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you drink? When did we welcome you away from home or clothe you in your nakedness? When did we visit you when you were ill or in prison?' The king will answer them: ‘I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.'
Jesus rang our doorbell this morning at 8:15am. Groggy and half-asleep, Christina stumbled to the door to find a woman walking away from our porch. She looked back to see Christina standing at the door and ran back. She shared that her father had just died and she would soon be catching a bus that would take her, and her twin five-month-old babies to California to be with her family. She had not been home for twelve years and was currently in the middle of a divorce.
She didn't ask for money or food or a charity hand out. She was looking for someone to listen to her and pray for her. She had found herself at different churches along her way and they had turned her away unable or unwilling to help her. She found herself knocking on the door of strangers.
Christina came upstairs and woke me up. She told me this woman's story and I got up and came downstairs to give support and help in any way I could. I didn't know what I could do for this woman. We packed her some food … a box of crackers, a box of graham crackers, a loaf of bread, and some fruit and we gave her $2 to catch a bus across town. It wasn't much, but it was our humble offering that we could spare. She was very grateful, hugged us and thanked us both. We wished her well, and she left us.
Christina and I sat in our kitchen and talked about what had just happened and what we had just experienced. We talked about this woman and wondered if she would be okay. We wanted to do more, but knew it wasn't in our hands. It wasn't about us. It didn't matter what we wanted. Christina said she wanted to give her peanut butter or something else to help, but everything we had had been already opened or half-used. I had thought about that too, but realized it was a matter of dignity that she didn't deserve our leftovers.
There is nothing that makes one person better than someone else. There is no one who is exempt from pain or needing assistance. It was obviously very hard for this woman to ask for help, but it was humbling for us to be able to help her. I was very skeptical of this woman and her story, but realized that it didn't matter if her story was true, or if she was just hungry, or what the circumstances were that brought her to our door. That was Jesus standing at our doorstep this morning. It was Jesus that we helped and prayed for and listened to and fed.
As she wiped away the tears from her eyes to thank us and hug us as she was leaving, I knew we had done the right thing. I knew we had shown this woman compassion and love. We gave this woman dignity and worth, and did not judge her based upon her circumstances.