This morning I did something for the first time I wish I'd have been doing for years. I prepared and served breakfast at "Sharing and Caring Hands", a christian homeless shelter in Minneapolis.
Of the 250 or so people we served on a morning after the temperature dropped into the single digits below zero, about 15 were children under the age of 10. They were much like every other child you'd meet, they were upbeat, they liked this kind of food over that, some were shy, some not, and they were universally polite about asking for whatever it was they wanted.
It warmed my heart to serve them especially, it gives me satisfaction outside my ability to quantify to reflect the face of god to those around me, just as it tears my heart in two to consider the reality that in this richest nation on the earth, we have 5 year-old children sleeping outside in cardboard boxes under freeway overpasses, children who've done nothing other than to have the misfortune of being part of a family which doesn't have enough money to eat or afford shelter. Just as my heart is glad to offer them a warm smile and warm food, the anguish is indescribable. Lord lead me to serve them better until I can no longer.
Dear Pen, in the eighteen plus months we have been blogging partners, one of the aspects of getting to know you better which I have enjoyed is your compassion, and how it shapes your worldview.
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