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Don’t know about you, but I’m scrambling to get all my holiday chores finished in time. What else is new? Right? Yeah, like many of you, I often find myself running late with everything this time of year and when that happens, it’s easy to miss out on the truly important things. Things like our kids wanting some affection or helping someone in need.

How many times have we all found ourselves in a fog as we rush down a road or highway and in an instant our distractions cause us to miss a sign or turn? Likewise, our own personal distractions, foggy spiritual focus and fears can take us off course or cause us to miss out on blessings waiting along the way. And though I try to stay fixed on the true meaning of Christmas, sometimes it’s hard to discern between all the voices that call to us.

Yet there he was, a young homeless man, standing outside my favorite grocery store calling out a humble thank you to someone who’d given him a few dollars, and his voice seemed to reach into my own soul too.

Thoughts of a couple of heart tugging incidents flooded my mind with a convicting pull. There was that time three years ago when the piercing look of a homeless woman called to me as I drove out of a shopping center after finishing my last Christmas errand. Her look of desperation had tugged at my heart causing me to ask God if I should turn around and give her some money. Then, the instant I finished that prayer for a sign, a song came over the airwaves of my car radio with stunning clarifying lyrics—“She’s on the corner with a cardboard sign and it’s tugging at your heart.” The song answered. So, of course I’d turned around and went back to give her a hand up.

Maybe that’s why the plight of that certain young homeless man was weighing on me. There was a certain reminiscence about him that had me thinking of that incident and another one many years ago. A moment in time when my own distracted busyness caused me to miss out on a special blessing. I wrote about it in my book “Fresh Eyes: Seeing God in the Unexpected.”

So, as promised, here’s another true miraculous story to ponder as we rush through our holiday goals.

It was just such a day about 30 years ago, when my own languid response to an opportunity resulted in a missed blessing and years of regret.

I was at a choir rehearsal that evening, and the director realized that we needed more copies of the music we were learning. Our pianist, the pastor’s wife, and I, volunteered to go down to the church office to get the needed copies. The sun was beginning to set and a light rain had begun to fall as we entered the office on the lower part of the campus that evening.

Finished with our business and having turned off the lights, we stepped out into the garden path. Startling our exit, several strangers suddenly approached us. All of them were dressed in biblical-looking attire. One of them stepped forward and introduced himself as a fellow believer and “traveler.”  He then asked if the church might have a room where they could rest for the night and be sheltered from the rain. I started to respond positively but was quickly cut short by my companion. “We don’t have the authority for that,” she responded. Of course, being the pastor’s wife, she did indeed have the authority, but was obviously cautious about allowing strangers into church property.

“It doesn’t take authority,” the young man said. “It just takes a heart!”

The strangers walked away briskly, and we stared at each other with pricked conviction.“Maybe we could let them sleep in the early childhood room where there’s a bathroom,” she quickly revised.

“Sure,” I said and immediately we turned back to give them the hospitable good news. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, yet they were nowhere to be seen. They had simply vanished. There was nothing nearby that could possibly hide the conspicuously dressed group and no crowds of people to blend in with as they departed, yet we could not see them anywhere.

Looking at each other in wonder and dismay, words failed, and expressions revealed our obvious regret and curiosity of the blessing we’d both missed that night. We had forgotten to entertain strangers and likely missed out on “entertaining angels.” 

Can you imagine the regret the innkeepers had after learning about the special birth of the Messiah that they missed that serendipitous night? It must have pierced their hearts with remorse at the thought of turning away the parents of the baby Jesus. No doubt some of them never connected the dots or made excuses for their unsympathetic refusal of a room. We can only surmise that many, like myself, may have realized their mistake and lived with long regrets for the blessing missed.

So, as I considered that story and those experiences, I found myself doing all I could to help the young homeless man without putting myself in danger. Knowing that all the local winter shelters were still closed in response to the Covid epidemic, I called our church hotline to ask if there was something they could do to help him get out of the cold rainy night. One very caring pastor called me back and offered some information and suggestions. I learned that much like that little town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago, our local motels were fully booked, because of a government order. But it wasn’t because of a censor being taken, our government was using hotels and motels across our nation to house thousands of immigrants who’d stormed through our borders in recent months. So, even though our church and others had funds set aside for helping the homeless get rooms, churches and innkeepers efforts were thwarted.

So, as another freezing cold night began and still no room for the young man, I felt guilty crawling into my warm cozy bed. I said a prayer for him and found myself pondering the scripture and comment I’d placed at the end of that story with heartfelt worry.

Hebrews 13:2 shines a light on the importance of attentiveness and brotherly love while on life’s highway.  “Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”

At this point, in the plight of the homeless man, I haven’t been able to get him into a shelter or motel room and one of the last times I spoke to him he mentioned waking up encrusted with ice all over his damp clothing. I did give him another, more generous, gift and encouraged him to get some food in a warm restaurant where they welcome paying customers and stay open long hours. He wasn’t at his usual post the last time I was there, so I’m praying he was able to find shelter from the storm. I pray that he has and hope I haven’t once again missed a blessing that was actually an angel in disguise.

What would you do in this situation? Tell me or share your Christmas story in comments here.

In the mean time, I pray all of you will have warm and wonderful holidays.

#holidays #Inspirations #miracles #Christmas #fresheyes #winter #homeless #miraculous #angels #prayer #songs