Monday, November 2, 2020

Dearest God,

I continually pray for a leading of your spirit of what I can do to help others.  Yesterday you answered that prayer.  

It was bitterly cold today with gusting winds and cold temperatures.  I had to get out into the weather to return some items.  On my way home I passed a woman pushing a full grocery cart into the wind.  She was wearing a thin coat and house slippers.  It was clear she was homeless and had all her earthly possessions in her cart.  I turned my car around and parked where I could a block away.  

By the time I reached the corner, the woman had stepped outside the convenience store with a package of little storage boxes.  She and I arrived at her cart at the same time.  With her head bent down she struggled to open the plastic.  I asked her where she was headed and what I could do to help.  She never looked up.  She never spoke.  She didn't respond in anyway.  With a cart of clothes, cans of food, a thin mat and sleeping bag and Depends diapers, I knew she planned to sleep outside.  Although I moved closer but did not touch her in any way, she acted as if the world around her was invisible.  Sadly, many of us most of the time act if the homeless were invisible.  I finally had to walk back to my car.

When I climbed into my car, I grabbed my phone and called the police reporting a homeless woman who would freeze overnight if she did not have shelter.  The officer took all the information and promised they would send someone out to help her.  I cried.

Loving Father,

how do

we change

our world,

making a

safe and

loving environment

for the

mentally ill?

How do

we care

for them?

Thank you

for calling me

to task today.

Help the woman

who is

your child,

O God.

Please call me again.

Love, Andrea