It's 2:30am. I should be asleep, but I can't. I spent the last three hours or so volunteering to try to count the homeless population of Beloit. I was part of the walking team, so we bundled up and hit the streets, looking to offer shelter and care packages to those in need. I wasn't surprised we didn't find anyone - I've done this before. What did surprise me is how intensely it hit me.
When I participated last year, I was at a different place in my relationship with God. I'd read different books and He'd been working me through different verses. So naturally, I'd learned and felt different things.
Tonight, Jesus' last words from Matthew came to mind, particularly the piece where He calls on us to go to all of the earth (28:19-20). I thought of chapter 4, where He simply says "Follow Me". Those verses are tied together. He came to earth, told us to follow, and then showed us the way. As we searched in all the nooks and crannies, shining flashlights and going to places I don't even realize existed, I was overwhelmed by the sense that this was what following Jesus looked like for me, right then in that moment. These were the ends of the earth I was covering - under bridges, by dumpsters, in the bars, around corners that led to closed off sections.
Less than two miles from campus, we found an encampment under a bridge; it was organized and had sleeping bags, clothes, and even a bag for garbage. We were told that those people were probably out at the bar and would return just to go to sleep. The men in charge told us that they had once encountered a twenty year old guy there; someone who would blend in at my school was sleeping under a bridge in -20 degree weather. It stole my breath away. I knew that I would shortly be returning to a nice warm bed that I would sleep in before waking up to go to school and carry on business as usual. What if his normal were my normal?
We headed back to campus to talk a little bit about what we'd experienced. One volunteer said he used to be homeless, and I wrote his reflections in my journal, "When I was in their shoes, I wish there had been someone looking for me" What a statement. Everyone wants to feel a part of something; everyone wants to know that they have value and that they mean something to someone, that even one person cares about them.
And that's when I got thinking. How many verses are there about the Lord being a shelter or place of protection? Dozens! Without Christ, we are the homeless. We have nowhere to go, and we are aching to be loved and accepted. While the homeless lack resources, or perhaps it's hard times, mental illness, disability, or drug/alcohol problems that keep them from being lifted up, we are dripping with our sin. We want to be loved by God, but a fair God can't ignore this problem of sin we have. So He sent His Son to die, to make a way for us to know the love of a Father. In Christ, the Lord welcomes us into His enormous house, and we get to be part of His family.
We can't pay our Savior back for anything He gave us. But we can listen. We can be obedient and take His words seriously. We can answer when He says "Follow"; we can go to the forgotten corners of our worlds. And we can welcome our neighbors who have nowhere to go into His house.
You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. Isaiah 25:4
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