Meet Pops.

So I was walking back to my car after the gym. I see this man bent over with his hands digging in the puddles. I thought he was fishing for money. The way his bones poked out his arms made my stomach hurt. I wandered what he was looking for in the water. I wondered what he ate that day or even this week. I remembered I had four dollars in my car. The four dollars I was going to use for my lunch.

I had big plans of my lovely egg salad. And then there was this guy fishing in the puddle. I realized as I passed him that I was more than selfish to think of my belly while this guy was probably hoping to find some loose change in the debris. I got in my car and pulled out. I stopped and looked hard at him. He looked up and said, “you can go”. He didn’t know, but I couldn’t. I had to stop. Was this what Jesus felt like when he saw poverty? I don’t know.

I rolled my window down and he repeated himself, “You can go”. Whatcha doing I asked. Well I am unclogging the drains here so the water can get out. “Ahhhhh, I see”. I had a much closer view of his body now which wrentched my stomach. He looked like someone from Somolia or someplace. He was wearing clothes but his bones and veins were all I saw. I asked him his name and he said Pops. I offered him my four dollars. Not begrudgingly either (finally). He thanked me for it. I asked him what he was going to buy and he said food. Thank the Lord I thought. He looked like a strong wind could take him out cold.

I said, “you want me to get you something from McDonald’s?’ He was more than happy to give me the dollars back in exchange for a Big Mac. When I came back he was all smiles and all gratitude. I looked at him hard and realized that God just provided for this man a meal. My mind immediately thought of Matthew 6:24-33…

“For  this reason I say to you, do not be worried  about your life,  as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look  at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add  a single hour to his life?

I realized a lot from my encounter with Pops. Besides my ridiculous selfishness I realized that God is most concerned with the seemingly insignificant details of our lives. How do I always forget this? How is it that my faith struggles on the BIG things and forgets all the continued provision in every small part of my life.

I am so thankful that He reminds me over and over and over again of His CRAZY LOVE for me. And I am so thankful to be a part of Pops story for today. I have a feeling that I needed that time with Pops just as much as Pops needed a burger.