The ubiquitous Poor

Jesus said that the poor would always be with us. While he walked the earth, there were oportunities to do things directly for him, worship could be direct. But even then the majority of the time his emphasis was on helping us understand that our treatment of others is a good litmus test for our understanding of God.

In First John we are told that if you don't love the person you can see, there is no way you can love the God you haven't. 

The thing is that the poor are ubiquitous. Every place has them. Most religions make mention of them. All societies have to find a place for them. As often as not that means that like birds and grass and trees we stop seeing God's Creations and start assuming that people created to bear God's image are just part of the land scape.

I have made it a practice to try to be friendly and great the people around me here in these new surroundings. Some are surrley, one asked how I could be the pastor since I was too friendly to fit with this crowd, others are polite, some even friendly. But at that level it is still hard to see the individual human beings.

But this week I happened to ask how someone was doing, they walk through my yard every day, and admire my boys, but I finally had someone respond. I learned about loosing a job, and then a home and how the ratty shoes she wore were the only pair she had. 

I can't help "the poor." There are not enough resources to do that, "they" are everywhere. But my neighbor who needs new shoes I can help. I cannot get her a job, I cannot buy her a house, I cannot solve the myriad pains and heartaches. But I found a nice pair of hiking boots on sale, in her size and the look on her face when she put them on was priceless.

All too often people like her will not be back in church. It is rare that a life in that much turmoil simply finds God's grace through a visit to a church where they are out of place. But hopefully every step she takes for the next year will remind her that to at least one person she was not part of the scenery.  And Lord willing she will be in church, here or anywhere, a testimony to the grace of God for the ultimate poverty.

 Because we are everywhere, and God does not loose us amidst the scenery. And that is why our neighbors who are in some way poor in this life are so good for each of us. Because until we see individuals, and listen and care for them, we do not understand how God cares for us. And until Christ once again walks this earth, it is in sharing his riches with a needy world that we demonstrate, and prove our understanding of the Gospel.