Today The Coolest Thing Happened

I go to a huge university, thousands of people go here. Thousands of people walk across the same street I do and onto that same campus I do every day. I don't know how many of them are aware of the people around them, probably not even close to half of them. They pass people nonchalantly and live in their own worlds with their head phones in or on their cell phones chatting. They have no idea who is near.

There is this homeless man that I see sometimes, his name is Richard. Yes I do know his name because I see him. I don't just see the blurred figure of man sitting on a tree stump or bench. I see Richard. I don't know his story, I wish I did though, I wish I were brave enough to invite him to have a cup of coffee with me or a buy him a sandwich and ask him to tell me his story but I think too much about it every time it crosses my mind. The only thing I know is that every time I see him I feel compelled to acknowledge him. I always give him whatever I have on me that I can spare, and on more than one occasion I've offered him my hand and introduced myself. My mother would kill me if she knew that I talk to homeless people.

People don't do that she'd say, people don't meet homeless people and that's true. Most college kids pass by Richard and ignore his low voice as he asks for spare change or walk farther away, girls clutch their purses and guys put their hands in their pockets and walk faster as though he's not there. But for some reason I always see him; I see Jesus when I look at him. I see him as the holy and good creation of that he is. And every time I see him I think to myself what if my Savior were sitting on this corner and I walked by. What if I were sitting on that corner and someone walked by me? So I stop.

Today I saw Richard, he never remembers my name which is fine because I'm not important, but today he remembered it. He looked me right in the eyes and said "Christina right? I went to mass the other day and I prayed for you. God is going to help you." My jaw dropped, I was floored. I absolutely felt God's presence in the moment it was like He told Richard to deliver that message to me. I was so humbled in that moment. Here I was thinking that I was helping him by offering him change and acknowledging him and praying for him on the days that I see him, here I was thinking I was bringing some Jesus into his life by showing him Christ love and come to find out he's been praying for me, and God chose him to give a message, to pour light into my life and not the other way around.

Humbled.

I can't believe the coolest thing happened to me today.