By Dwight Beal –

The day before the city “fall clean-up” last November, I realized that I had a lot of work to do, and there was no way I could do it all by myself.  Raking, pruning, sweeping, dragging… it was more than one human could accomplish in an afternoon.  I whispered a weary prayer, “God… I don’t know what to do here.  I need help.”  I immediately thought of a friend of mine who is a very hard worker, and very generous with his time.  He also happens to be homeless.  So I got in my car and drove around town, hoping to find him in one of his usual spots.  Sure enough, there he was, in front of Walmart, holding a cardboard sign that said, “Homeless and Hungry”.  I got out of my car and he greeted me with a hug.  I told him that I needed him, and I thought I saw a little twinkle in his eye.  Knowing the precarious nature of the panhandling business, I offered to pay him a good honest wage for his time.  With a skip in our steps, we both hopped into my Jeep and headed back to my place.  And before the sun set that evening, my friend and I dragged the last bit of lawn refuse to the curb and it was done.  In previous days, God had used me, I think, to be there for him. But on this day, he was the hands and feet of Christ to me.