Entertain hard scrabble strangers

Yesterday I walked into my wife’s office and she was on the phone. Her desk was piled high with all kinds of invoices that needed to be paid and other work that needed to be done. It was obvious she was near overwhelmed. She barely looked up at me as she talked on the phone and simultaneously gave me a look that reminded me of the Marine Corps slogan, “Don’t tread on me!”

When she got off the phone I simply said, “I just happened to realize that nearly half the day has gone by and I haven’t told you yet that I love you; I love you”. I noticed she lit up a big smile like a Christmas tree as I went back to my office.

I didn’t do that for any other purpose than to make her feel good. Funny thing, it made me feel good too. On occasion I do things like pay two or three tolls for the people in the cars behind me. I smile as I try to imagine what they think when they drive up to the toll booth and the cashier tells them the guy in front of you, (a complete stranger), paid your toll for you. I got a shoe shine the other day and gave the guy a hundred dollar bill and told him to keep the change. It wasn’t all that great of a shine, but my heart was flooded with compassion for this complete stranger as I thought about how hard it must be to earn a living shining shoes.

A friend of mine wrote me the other day about the Foundation for a Better Life. This is the group that places television ads depicting various people doing good things for others. He told me that he was shocked to discover that when he looked them up on the Internet that they were not a church related organization.

WOW! If secular individuals can do such good things for others, how much more so should we as Christians.

Unlike most people I was saved through reading the Bible. I was amazed that Jesus was nothing like I had envisioned God to be. He was compassionate and not condescending. He was always helping people, encouraging them, healing the sick, and spending time with the poor and those who were down trodden.

Do you have a heart for the poor and down trodden? A man came up to me after I had given a talk and was signing books and he really looked out of place for this gathering. Contrary to the others in attendance whose attire I would describe as being a cross between business casual and business formal, this man was dressed rather shabbily and needed a haircut. I could tell by the lines on his face that he had lived a rough life. He looked uncomfortable being around all of these people and kept nervously looking around as he made his way forward in the line.

When he finally got up to me he quickly handed me a card and told me in a barely audible whisper that he had undertaken a mission of giving out Bibles and asked me to call him about it because he wanted my input. He nervously turned on his heels and was trying to beat it out of there and I called out to him. When he turned around I gave him a book, (I knew he couldn’t afford the twenty bucks), and smiled reassuringly at him and told him that I would be in touch. The line was long and several of those in line who had been waiting so long looked annoyed that this hard scrabble man was holding up the show. I thought to myself that they needed to just get over it, because this hard scrabble man was perhaps an angel in hard scrabble camo.

Mother Teresa was holding a dying man in her arms who was so emaciated that she could see every bone in his body. His clothes were filthy rags and he didn’t even have a pair of sandals. She compassionately wiped his brow and rocked him like a baby and watched as he literally died in her arms. A reporter asked her how she could take it, being around all of the lepers, extreme poverty, filth, death, and misery of those hapless souls in India. She simply replied, “When I look at them, I see the face of Jesus”.

I hope you see the face of Jesus today when you do something extraordinary for someone else for no specific purpose other than trying to emulate Jesus Christ. We should do what He would do if He were in our places and was presented with the same opportunities that we are.

Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.