Daniel's Gloves

noreply@blogger.com (West Texas Insomniac) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:25:00 +0000

We all get them. The daily, "chain" e-mails, forwarded by friends to friends to friends. I guess they mean well, but some of them need to show a little more discretion in what they forward to their 400 "closest" e-mail buddies. Because what happens is, I start deleting them before I read them. But I made an exception for this one. I'm glad I did.

As I was telling Jay the other night, this is a great story, whether it really happened or not. I didn't bother to check Snopes or any of the other urban myth sites because the actual "story" isn't as important as the message it delivers to us. You could change the characters, the location, the weather...and it's still a tale that sticks with you. It did me anyway. It came to me unattributed. Have a wonderful Sunday. tb

Daniel's Gloves

I sat with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint
restaurant just off the corner of the town-square. The food
and the company were both especially good that day.

As we talked, my attention was drawn
outside, across the street. There, walking into town, was a
man who appeared to be carrying all his worldly goods on his
back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that read, 'I
will work for food.' My heart sank.

I brought him to the attention of my
friends and noticed that others around us had stopped eating
to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and
disbelief.

We continued with our meal, but his
image lingered in my mind. We finished our meal and went our
separate ways. I had errands to do and quickly set out to
accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking
somewhat halfheartedly for the strange visitor. I was
fearful, knowing that seeing him again would call some
response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him. I
made some purchases at a store and got back in my car.

Deep within me, the Spirit of God
kept speaking to me: 'Don't go back to the office
until you've at least driven once more around the
square.'

Then with some hesitancy, I headed
back into town. As I turned the square's third corner,
I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the store front
church, going through his sack.

I stopped and looked; feeling both
compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on. The
empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from
God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and
approached the town's newest visitor.

'Looking for the pastor?' I asked.

'Not really,' he replied, 'just resting.'

'Have you eaten today?'

"Oh, I ate something early this morning.'

'Would you like to have lunch with me?'

'Do you have some work I could do for you?'

'No work,' I replied 'I commute here to work from the city,
but I would like to take you to lunch.'

'Sure,' he replied with a smile.

As he began to gather his things, I
asked some surface questions. 'Where you headed?'

'St. Louis'

'Where you from?'

'Oh, all over; mostly Florida.'

'How long you been walking?'

'Fourteen years,' came his reply.

I knew I had met someone unusual. We
sat across from each other in the same restaurant I had left
earlier. His face was weathered slightly beyond his 38
years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an
eloquence and articulation that was startling. He removed
his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said,
'Jesus is The Never Ending Story'.

Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough
times early in life. He'd made some wrong choices and
reaped the consequences. Fourteen years earlier,
while backpacking across the country, he had
stopped on the beach in Daytona. He tried to hire on with
some men who were putting up a large tent and some
equipment. A concert, he thought...

He was hired, but the tent would not
house a concert but revival services, and in those services
he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God.

'Nothing's been the same
since,' he said, 'I felt the LORD telling me to keep
walking, and so I did, some 14 years now..'

'Ever think of stopping?' I asked.

'Oh, once in a while, when it
seems to get the best of me. But God has given me this
calling. I give out Bibles That's what's in my sack.
I work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out where His
Spirit leads me.'

I sat amazed. My homeless friend was
not homeless. He was on a mission and lived this way by
choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then I
asked: 'What's it like?'

'What?'

'To walk into a town carrying
all your things on your back and to show your sign?'

'Oh, it was humiliating at
first. People would stare and make comments. Once someone
tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that
certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it
became humbling to realize that God was using me to touch
lives and change people's concepts of other folks like
me.'

My concept was changing, too. We
finished our dessert and gathered his things. Just outside
the door, he paused He turned to me and said, 'Come ye,
blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've
prepared for you. For when I was hungry you gave me food,
when I was thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you
took me in.'

I felt as if we were on holy ground.

'Could you use another Bible?' I asked.

He said he preferred a certain
translation. It traveled well and was not too heavy. It was
also his personal favorite. 'I've read through it 14
times,' he said.

'I'm not sure we've got
one of those, but let's stop by our church and see'
I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well,
and he seemed very grateful.

'Where are you headed from
here?' I asked.

'Well, I found this little map
on the back of this amusement park coupon.'

'Are you hoping to hire on
there for awhile?'

'No, I just figure I should go
there. I figure someone under that star right there needs a
Bible, so that's where I'm going next.'

He smiled, and the warmth of his
spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission. I drove him
back to the town-square where we'd met two hours
earlier, and as we drove, it started raining. We parked and
unloaded his things.

'Would you sign my autograph
book?' he asked. 'I like to keep messages from folks
I meet.'

I wrote in his little book that his
commitment to his calling had touched my life. I encouraged
him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of
scripture from Jeremiah, 'I know the plans I have for
you, declared the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to
harm you; Plans to give you a future and a hope.'

'Thanks, man,' he said.
'I know we just met and we're really just strangers,
but I love you.'

'I know', I said, 'I love you, too.' 'The Lord is good!'

'Yes, He is. How long has it
been since someone hugged you?' I asked.

'A long time,' he replied

And so on the busy street corner in
the drizzling rain, my new friend and I embraced, and I felt
deep inside that I had been changed.. He put his things on
his back, smiled his winning smile and said, 'See you in
the New Jerusalem.'

'I'll be there!' was my reply.

He began his journey again. He
headed away with his sign dangling from his bedroll and pack
of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, 'When you see
something that makes you think of me, will you pray for
me?'

'You bet,' I shouted back,

'God bless.'

'God bless.' And that was the last I saw of him.

Late that evening as I left my
office, the wind blew strong. The cold front had settled
hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car. As
I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw
them....a pair of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid
over the length of the handle. I picked them up and thought
of my friend and wondered if his hands would stay warm that
night without them. Then I remembered his words:

'If you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray
for me?'

Today his gloves lie on my desk in
my office. They help me to see the world and its people in a
new way, and they help me remember those two hours with my
unique friend and to pray for his ministry. 'See you in
the New Jerusalem,' he said.

Yes, Daniel, I know I will....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's continue to pray for one another.

'Father, I ask you to bless my friends, relatives and e-mail buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of your love and power. Holy
Spirit, I ask you to minister to their spirit at this very
moment.

Where there is pain, give them your peace and mercy.
Where there is self-doubt, release a renewed confidence
through your grace, In Jesus' precious Name Amen.'

GOD BLESS YOU, MY FRIENDS AND
FAMILY!!!

g2g (Glory2God)

Daniel's Gloves