January 14, 2011-A child of God, a brother of mine.

In North Carolina, the winters are nothing like they are in Orlando, FL. The winters here are DANG cold. I took a trip to Asheville to visit the beautiful Anne Archer with Haley and we spent some time roaming the streets of downtown Asheville, where we passed numerous homeless people. The homeless in general are tough for me to walk away from or turn a cold shoulder too but a man sitting on the corner of a street particularly hurt my heart. As I complained and whined about how cold I was in my boots, warm socks, sweater and big, puffy jacket, his man caught my eye. He had very little on and was curled up in the tightest ball he could manage to try and stay warm. It hit me pretty hard how selfish I was becoming. I take so much of what seems at time to be momentarily uncomfortable for granted and things as simple as a jacket mean the world to some. 


I wonder who that man is. Who his family was or is, how he got there and how long he had been there. I wonder the stories he has, the things he knows. I wonder if maybe God placed him on that street corner so that I would walk by and wonder all of these things. I wonder if God put him there to teach me to stop wondering, and to find out. To hear the stories and understand the cold and the loss he may have suffered. To understand the hunger and the pain he may deal with and to show that man that there is hope. That cold man taught me in the split second that he caught my eye that I need to stop wondering and start doing.


Matthew 25:45
"And he will answer, I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me."