Monday, February 27, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Come, you who are blessed by my Father
And Jesus said to them, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
I checked into the Super 8 in Joplin. First the sweet lady gave me a ground floor room. “Could I see your ID?” I gave it to her. She looked at me with renewed interest. “I’ve never had a person from Urbana in a room here. I grew up in Urbana! First at Chanute with my dad in Rantoul, then Urbana, and now I’ve been in Missouri for 20 years.”
It’s so good to meet you!
Talking last night with my cousin, who recently moved to central Pennsylvania, to the town where he spent a few years during middle school. His dad took him and two friends to visit Gettysburg. He took lots of pictures. He still has them. And, here’s the thing, he also still has his friends!
Thanks to Facebook, he tracked them down. And they are going to get together soon. Maybe take a trip to Gettysburg? Who knows?
Mike is nearly the same age as me. He said, “I’m meeting new friends faster than the old ones are dying.” That’s a good thing.
We talked about our mutual love of reading. I told Mike I’ve kept track of books I’ve read since 1989, when our family moved to Urbana and began campus ministry with Don Follis, who is one of the most avid readers I know. For the last several years my librarian buddy in Nebraska and I exchange reading lists each month. She annotates her list, and I love reading her notes about each book, although I rarely reciprocate.
But talking with Mike I realized that I don’t keep a list like that of people I meet. Which is an even better idea. Books matter, and people matter more. How many people have I met since 1989? How many precious unique individually fingerprinted children of God have I met in the last 34 years? Shaken hands with. Gotten to know their names. Spent at least a little time with.
Hundreds? Thousands?
Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill in prison and visit you?
Since I’ve been a professional counselor, I’ve kept a small file for each of my clients, and I do not throw any of those files away. The notes and folders fill six metal filing cabinet drawers. I have NOT taken those files out of their drawers and made a list of all the names, although each of those folks was precious then, and is precious now.
Good idea, Dave! Make a list. Make two lists. Separate the people by date and location. Get their contact information. Call them. Text them. Send them an email note or card.
Tell each person how special they are to me. Pray out loud in the note for each of them. For both our sakes, for the sake of brotherly and sisterly love – because I know my life on earth does not last forever.
But God’s love does last forever, and that’s really what we share, every time we meet someone, every time we say hello, and every time we remember them and say so.
Mike and I prayed for each other and with each other before we parted last night. As we have for decades. God gives us gifts, gives us each other, and I am so grateful.
And the king will say to us in reply, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
(Leviticus 19, Psalm 19, 2 Corinthians 6, Matthew 25)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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