Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: SHOP (01/03/19)
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TITLE: Tend My Sheep | Previous Challenge Entry
By Carolyn Ahrens
01/10/19 -
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It had been decades, but once I lived on the streets just like her! It’s a very difficult way to live. Some may do it by choice, but others find themselves there from various circumstances. I was a runaway at 15 years old and got a lifetime worth of experiences that I never could have imagined! God was watching over me every minute keeping me safe, but I didn’t realize it back then! Even now, as I recall those days of homeless existence, and it is literally surviving each day, I can still feel the cold, hunger and fear that was a daily thing! Searching for a safe place to sleep was extremely important. You had to compare all the areas, so you didn’t wake up dead! With snow coming down and nothing but the clothes on my back, I’d search out the largest, thickest box that I could possibly find, to give me the best shelter. Next, I’d look around and see where others were bedding down and find a bush that my box could fit behind and be hidden!
When you don’t know when you’ll get a morsel of food, you can look back and see how you once took it for granted. I remember being in a city and searching for churches on a Sunday morning. Surely, Christians would have a charitable heart; they’d help you get something to eat! So, I compared several churches and chose a large one. I stood at the end of the walkway as the people paraded out! They were all smiles until I approached them asking for food or a quarter to help me get some. You’d thought I had the “Bubonic Plague” by their expressions! Many of them went another way to avoid me. There were a few kind people that gave me a quarter, but most did not, and no one offered me food! The bible says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware” (Hebrews 13:2 ESV). Of course, I was no angel sent to test these people, but what if I had been? The report wouldn’t have been good! In John 21:16-17 (NKJV), Jesus told Peter, “Feed My Sheep. Tend My Sheep”! Well now…I’m like a sheep according the bible and no one offered to feed me! I didn’t look like them. My clothes and face were dirty! I was a beggar that they wanted to shew away. It took a stranger in a rundown diner to show the kind of love and compassion Jesus said we should show! I had compared in my mind, which type of person would help me. Christians were the obvious answer, but I was wrong!
I went inside the old diner across the street from the church, to count change that I’d been given. A lady stood behind a counter watching me count my coins. It was enough to buy chips and a glass of water. I stepped up to order the chips and the lady said to have a seat and she’d bring it to me. When she came over, she put a hot dog, fries and coke on the table with a cloth for my face and hands! “I can’t pay for this,” I said. “I know, she replied. I was watching you count your money. How can I let you pay for a bag of chips, knowing that’s all you have? It’s on me. I’m the owner”. I don’t think she was a Christian by the way she spoke to others, but she showed me the kind of love and compassion the bible says we Christians are to show! She fed me when I was hungry. She gave me drink when I was thirsty.
We should be mindful when we are around strangers in need. They might have looked and compared others to approach, but picked you or me out for a reason! You never know when we might be entertaining angels unaware!
I was in need but was not an angel sent from heaven…
But What if I Had Been?
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Well done, thank you!
God bless~