MONO MONDAY - EMOTION

It was a very cold morning, with a bitter wind blowing but I needed to go into the town centre to our Bank, so set off quite early.  It’s amazing the difference it makes not having any “school” traffic, but even so, I was very surprised at how quiet it was, especially as it’s only two days before Christmas.  However, I needed to go into the Bank so after I had wandered around for a while, went in there and drew out some cash, intending to see if there were any homeless people around in the town centre. 

My old boss and lots of other people would often say “Don’t give money to people on the street, buy them a drink or a sandwich”, but in this day and age, you never know if someone has an allergy, so I’m happy to give money and let them spend it on what they really want or need - and anyway, I believe if you are giving a gift, particularly of money, you shouldn’t then tell the recipient what you think they should spend it on!  You may feel differently.

I saw the lady selling The Big Issue and approached her - she has been selling in Swindon for many years and I remembered from about 10-15 years ago that she was Romanian, had a son and lived in Bristol, so we got chatting and she said she remembered me - whether that’s true or not, I’m not bothered, but she connected with me and that was good.  I told her I didn’t want the magazine and was happy for her to sell it to someone else, so after chatting some more with her and then blessing her with a gift and a little heart, walked on.

I then came across a man near one of the grimey-looking seats, who obviously had his whole world in several bags and holdalls, so I stopped and asked him his story.  He said he had been homeless for many years, so I told him I wanted to bless him at Christmas-time and he said, bless him “Are you sure?”  My response to that was “Of course I’m sure; I’m blessed and I want to bless you at this special time of year.”  I then had a lovely chat with him and told him about our Community Fridge and how anyone was welcome and said he would be welcome too.  He said he was very grateful to me and I told him that if he came to the Community Fridge after 6th January, he could have coffee and cake and also five free items and that I was there on a Thursday, so hope I might see him sometime.

Both these encounters were charged with emotion - how can we pass by and not show the love of Jesus to these people.  Whether it is their own fault they are homeless, or whether it is because of difficult circumstances - it’s not for us to judge and the phrase “There but for the grace of God, go I” comes to mind.

So this is not a portrait for Mono Monday, because I did not feel comfortable asking if I could take one of either person, but there is still emotion here.  And the world walked on by....

Reminds me of this quote, which I have used before, but which is so true:

“Want to keep Christ in Christmas? 
Feed the hungry, 
     clothe the naked, 
          forgive the guilty, 
               welcome the unwanted, 
care for the ill, 
     love your enemies, 
          and do unto others 
               as you would have done unto you.”
Steve Maraboli

P.S.  I apologise for not responding to any comments yesterday, but it was a very long day - we were out again in the evening and didn’t get back until about 8.30, so we both just crashed and watched ‘It’s a Wonderful Life” on the television and thoroughly enjoyed it.