When A Beggar Knocks

I have an elderly friend who was a member of the church where I first served as a youth minister. She was a spry little lady with whom I enjoyed laughing and talking. She was an encourager. Her husband was not a Christian, but it was not because he didn't have a living example in his home. Her light was a bright one. First she moved away, then I did, but she always wanted to receive my church bulletin to keep up with me. Two or three times a year we get a letter from her. We got a letter this week from my friend. She is doing well. She was widowed a few years back. She lives in a kind of assisted living facility, but not a nursing home. Her memory is filled with images of the friends 'back home' ... a place that seems sweeter as she looks back through the lense of time. I can't tell you what joy I receive from these occasional letters. Of course, I always write back! Enclosed this time was a piece of paper. Unfolding it I found two five dollar bills. It was her 'good Samaritan' gift to our church pantry. She had read in our bulletin that the pantry was empty. What a heart! Her gift will flow from several states away into the arms of someone who has come to our door to beg. And so when a beggar knocks, we will offer our love, the love of my friend Lois, and the love of Christ. The food will help, but perhaps the love shown will point a lost one toward Jesus who comforts the Lazarus' of the world. They are nameless and faceless to Lois and even to me. But Abba knows them, and loves them. He sent Messiah to die for the beggars, liars, theives, whores, and the rest of us. "... This poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury ..." (Mark 12:43)