Oct
24
2018
The Man At The Counter
Posted in Prayer 4 Comments
He was ahead of me in line.
He was the reason the line was not moving.
I did not fault him.
I just did not understand the problem.
I was looking around as I was waiting.
I noticed the people as they came and went.
I took notice of the man ahead of me in line.
My heart was moved.
I was simply making an exchange.
He did not have any item in front of him that he seemed to be returning.
I saw him holding something in his hand.
He handed it to the employee behind the counter.
The employee looked it over and seemed confused.
He looked up at the man.
He called another customer service employee over to ask his opinion.
That employee looked confused as well.
The man was dirty from head to toe.
I wondered if he had been doing construction and stopped here after work.
That theory was unlikely, since it was mid-day.
Dirt was caked on his arms and neck.
His hair was long and unkempt.
It was matted, as was his long beard.
He wore glasses, which were crooked and perhaps broken.
His shirt was tattered and his pants looked much too big for him.
Is this your address? The two employees asked him.
I noticed that what he had been holding was some form of ID.
Yes, it is, he said quietly.
We can’t send anything to a post office box, they said decisively.
The second employee, who came over to help the first, decided to call a front end manager.
Within minutes, the woman came to the customer service desk.
The second employee, motioned for me to step up to the counter.
Can I help you? He asked me, all the while giving a side glance to the man.
I explained what I wanted to exchange and got out my receipt.
I looked over at the man.
He glanced at me.
I smiled.
The front end manager explained that they cannot send anything to a post office box.
Everyone seemed to be speaking from a training handbook.
Everyone seemed to be following rules without seeing if the rules applied to this man.
No one seemed to see the man.
The woman read the address out loud; it was a rural route number, not a post office box.
I wanted to speak up and say that I have a friend who has an address just like that.
I wanted to speak up.
I should have spoken up; the man seemed so alone.
Are you sending money or getting money? She asked without a hint of compassion.
I’m getting it, he answered quietly.
About how much are you getting? She asked in a tone that bothered me.
He answered a relatively small amount.
I wondered if he was homeless.
I wondered where he actually lived on this rural route.
I wondered if someone was helping him by sending him a little bit of money.
I wondered if this transaction would really happen.
I looked over one more time, though I did not want to stare.
He looked back.
His eyes were old; they have seen much.
His eyes were kind.
Down on his luck, the world might say.
God knows this man.
God sees this man.
God loves this man.
I wondered if he knew that.
The front end manager approved the transaction.
I was so delighted that this man would get the little bit of money that was being sent to him.
He desperately needed a shower.
The strong smell of sweat was overpowering the closer I got to the counter.
God loves this man.
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:1-10)
I do not know this man’s story.
By all appearances, he was beaten down.
Life has been hard.
Cynics may come to their own conclusions about his life and his choices.
That is not what I saw in his eyes.
I saw a man who God dearly loves.
I saw a man with whom Jesus would have dined.
I saw the kind of man the Pharisees despised.
How I want to be like Jesus.
How I want to get passed the dirt, and the smell, and the appearance.
I am so grateful to God for allowing me to see this man’s eyes.
Kind, tender eyes; windows to his soul.
God loves this man.
I can love the man, from a rural route, through prayer.
I can do that.
I must do that.
Amen.
Amen.
Agreed, friend!
Amen, indeed!
Gina
How true we judge by appearances. So happy you looked into his eyes and saw the real person. Reading about and believing in Jesus allows us to do that; as you said this morning, this man was just the kind of person Jesus would have befriended.
Sue,
I am so glad that God allowed me to see his eyes.
I pray for eyes to see others the way Jesus sees them.
Gina