By Codie Brenner

Hey, Fella, don’t you see me, I’m right in front of you. I know I smell pretty bad, it’s been a while since I had a chance to shower up, or eat for that matter. I’m hungry, can’t you see it in my eyes. Oh, oh, maybe this one will notice that I don’t have shoes on or anything clean, I just need…won’t you…can’t you please…?

No, Mister, I don’t want your money; well I need it so I guess it’s okay I have to eat, but I just want you to see me. I’m right here, just stop a minute, can’t you slow down? Hey, Lady, “Could you spare a little change? I’m down on my luck,” I mumbled. No response. Not even eye contact. Maybe I’ll just hold this sign instead: OUT OF WORK. PLEASE HELP. GOD BLESS. That’s a little better…two dollars and some change on that one. I don’t know how long I can keep this up, my legs hurt, I’m tired. Guess there’s that place I found under the bridge I can take a quick nap and get out of the cold. Too bad they didn’t see me; if only they would look me in the eye or touch my hand. I miss that. Maybe when I wake up, maybe they’ll notice I’m human.

Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could all stop for a moment and see things the way God sees? His heart is with the poor, the widow, the fatherless, the abused, the misfortunate, and the brokenhearted. He sees the beggar and the harlot and the miser. He is tenderhearted wishing that none would perish but that all would come to eternal life. All! The neighbor, the punk kid, the speed racer who cut you off on the freeway, the ex-husband, the in-laws, the Jehovah’s Witness that keeps knocking on your door, the alcoholic, the mistress. All!

All I want for Christmas is to see through eyes of grace. To know the Father’s heart. To grasp with my finite mind that things impossible to me are actually possible for God. I want to believe. Abraham “contrary to hope, in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations.” There is a “so that” in all of our lives that God desires to accomplish, if only we will let Him.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It’s the person, the circumstance, the situation, the thing, the change that seems most impossible, beyond all logical reasoning, visibly hopeless that God is calling us to believe is possible.

He is God and His grace does not run out.

This Christmas let us seek Christ for the gift of His grace that we might, in turn, give it away in a touch, in a smile, in a kind word, in a trespass forgiven, in an offense overlooked, in a moment.

< Prev		Next >