7 home visits
2 side of the road encounters
1 hospital visit
1 walk around the block with Gator, the dog of a friend who lives alone and is housebound in his wheelchair.
1 suspected drug deal in front of us
5 containers of hot chili dished up from a big roaster in the back of our van
lots of hugs and prayers
Heading out unannounced we found a man blowing snow in his driveway, a family with kids playing in their living room, a bachelor watching tv, a woman in tears who was alone at Christmas, a man walking to the cigar store for cigarettes, a quiet hospital room with an elderly woman, a couple of kids walking down the street, an exchange made at a car window, a married couple who struggles to care for one another due to their deteriorating health problems.
The images of families together laughing and feasting, of finely decorated homes and presents piled under the tree-these were not the realities of many we came upon Saturday.
More than any Christmas before I could taste the longing for something, for someone, to come and take away the sickness, the pain, the loneliness, the sadness, the brokenness. What a strange paradox it was. Christmas- a day when people experience their brokenness, their sadness, their loneliness, their longings in acute ways like no other day. And Christmas- the day to announce the actual arrival of that someone who has come to make things right in our hearts. The hope of the world. The water for our thirsty souls. The one who rescues and can fulfill all our longings has come!
The drama seemed at its heightened climax this Christmas. As if the world has set up Christmas to create this perfect storm of appetite and desire, and God uses it as the perfect moment to usher in the only one who will satisfy. Christ the Messiah. What an honor it is to be a bringer of this Good News. May His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.
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