When I was hungry, you fed me.

Last night I was manning the dessert and coffee table at a fundraiser. As people arrived they helped themselves to the treats, chatted and then slowly made their way into the church sanctuary for the concert. The music began, but I stayed at the dessert table out in the courtyard, greeting the late-comers. I didn’t mind at all. The doors to the sanctuary were wide open and I could hear almost everything .

I’d been standing there about 20 minutes when a homeless guy wandered into the courtyard and sat down about 10 feet away from me. He was bundled up against the sea breeze in a hooded sweatshirt and pushing what I think was a stroller with his few belongings in them.

It was pretty obvious that he could use a cup of hot coffee and some dessert so a few of us made him up a plate of goodies. He was very grateful.

“Is this a church?” he asked
“Yes”
“A Christian church?”
“Yeah”.

He nodded his approval, maybe more for the coffee and brownie than for the surroundings. But as he sat and ate he kept peering towards the sanctuary door, towards the singing and scriptures projected onto the back of the stage wall.

5 minutes later the brownie was pronounced “very good” and the coffee was ready for the road. He stood up, gathered his belongings and took one more long look into the sanctuary. One of the scriptures caught his eye.

“That’s what Jesus said!!” he exclaimed.
“What’s that?”
“When I was hungry, you fed me”.

He took a long look at me. I raised my coffee cup to him. He waved and headed off into the night.

How often does someone approach us with a need and we can satisfy it that easily? He was hungry, and there I was, standing behind a table laden with free homemade desserts and hot coffee! I didn't even make any of the desserts! It doesn’t get much easier than that.

 God lays out a feast for us too, and invites us to the table to have our needs met. He’s done all the work and all we have to do is approach. Then he gives us the opportunity to invite others to share in the feast. What a privilege!

Philomena

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Comments

[ThomasMore]

Phil-

I think I missed this in the ub-bub of December. This is a great post, well done.

Thomas More