You Can’t Tell People by Their Cover

At first glance, I thought he was a Seminary student, sitting in one of the soft mall chairs, usually occupied by not-so-patient husbands waiting on their wives to shop one more store. He was even reading his Bible. When I completed my daily walk, I sat down next to him and asked, “Are you a Seminary student.” His answer surprised me. “No” he said, “I’m homeless.” Long story made short: he had worked in a restaurant that closed and thus, he had lost his job. Unable to find another job, he had eventually run out of money and was evicted from his apartment. He had come in the mall to escape the three-digit temperatures outside. I looked at his Bible, got his name off the front, and called a restaurant manager friend. Within a few days, the homeless, seminary student look-alike, had a new job, and a new outlook on life. I knew I had only stopped to talk with him because he looked like a Seminary student. How many homeless, hurting people have I passed by because they looked like what they were? You really can’t tell some people by their appearance. One day the disciples asked Jesus, “‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?” His answer convicts me. “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me” (Matthew 25: 43-45).

Join me in praying for the following global concerns this week:
• Pray for Somalia. More than half of Somalia’s population — roughly 3.7 million people, including 400,000 children — is at risk as Somalia enters the fourth month of a devastating famine.
• Pray for the women’s retreat this coming week-end in Kiev, Ukraine.
• Pray for Suzanne and others who work with University students in Vancouver as their fall term begins this week.
• Pray for Jade and Shelah as they minister in Sudan.