Sometimes we get so inundated with the world that we can fail to see the simplest forms of beauty that have been placed right in front of us. We go through our days refusing to see the thing that God placed all around us to remind us that He is who He is, and that His world is filled with splendor and wonder. All we have to do is to remember to be receptive to it and He will open our eyes to His beauty and grace whenever we ask, or choose to see it.
The other day a fight broke out at one of the places that I wander through in the day. Now in the world that I walk in, the fights are commonplace, and yet this one was different. Two large men, about my size fighting it out, and the difference, they were both deaf. Their turmoil released in guttural vocals and a fury of fists. God put me in that moment at that moment. I have loved a quote, and I’m not quite sure who said it, but it is, ‘the greatest evil in the world is not when evil men do their evil deeds, but when good men do nothing to stop them.’ I believe that God has changed me in ways that only God could, and so I stepped in. As I seized control of the moment with one of each of the men firmly in the grasp of each hand a 3rd man, joined in the fray. God gave me the strength and wisdom to keep hold of the two men and also control the 3rd.
As the dust was settling I found myself questioning if this was really where God wanted me, where I was supposed to be in life, and if this was where I really was needed. My adrenaline was pumping through my veins like and out of control freight train, and my mind was racing at a million times a minute. Then, one of the gals came over to me, her name is Mary. She is a sweet older woman with a heart of gold. She has had a rough life, and there has been no windfall or help along the way, so she is on the streets. She is small in stature, her hair is medium length and is peppered with streaks of grey and white hair, she has a variety of ailments, she is blind in one eye and has great difficulty seeing out of the other. You would think that she would not be as upbeat as she usually is, and yet in the midst of all of this. Here she had been no more than 10 feet from the fray with pretty much nowhere to run. She literally ran up to me, ‘Preacher!’ she yelled, it was like she could hear my thoughts, ‘you are our guardian angel when you are here, when you are here we feel safe because we know you will protect us.’ She then gave me a great hug with her frail little arms that took me aback, I didn’t think that arms that size or that aged and frail looking could hold that type of strength. Guess God had answered my question, and also showed me some of His beauty.
In that, it also reminded me of something else, that there is beauty and wonder in all of God’s creation, and that many times we choose to ignore it. At many of the shelters there is a deep sense of hurt, pain, loss, apathy, insecurity, and a plethora of all things like that, but there is also joy, wonder, grace, peace, and the things of God. At times the latter seem few and far between, and yet they are there, a constant reminder, and our job is to help others see that on a daily basis. To take the times to not only look for it ourselves, but when we find it to be able to show it to others and when it comes down to it, just spread the love, God’s love. I love each and every one of you and God does too. LLLAKYFOTPA
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