IS THAT YOU, LORD? by Margaret Baldwin

“I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me – you did it to me.”   Matthew 25:40 (Message)

In '92 we bought a bare, one-room cabin in the San Gabriel Mountains as a vacation get-away. It was perched high on the side of a canyon across the stream from Spruce Grove Campground, a back-pack camp. We walk four miles to get to it, as no roads go any closer.

One summer, while staying there for a week, I noticed a man who was camped below us in Spruce Grove who didn't pack up and leave like most do on Sunday or Monday. When I went to the stream for water I walked over to get acquainted and discovered a homeless, mentally handicapped but creative and energetic person, coping independently as best as he could. He kept an old No. 10 size can on the camp stove, full of water and whatever other food items he could glean from trash cans at Chantry Flat. At the time I visited him he had some bones and some bread boiling in the water and he drank the cooled water for nourishment and liquid, since the stream water was posted as unsafe.

He told me he was a “printer,” and showed me some “books” he had printed which had been “written” by “friends.” They were hand-printed with a child's hand-stamp printing set and the pages hole-punched and tied together with string. I asked how he kept warm at night and he showed me his one rather ragged wool blanket. I took food down each day for him. Then I looked around the cabin and found some other things, such as a used sleeping bag, a warm sweater and an army blanket, a kettle with a lid and a few other items including spoon, knife and fork. When I got these things together on my last day and took them down to his dilapidated tent, I couldn't find him anywhere. He was probably scrounging for more food four miles back at the picnic area. I left everything in his tent and prayed that God would bless and protect him and went my own way home.

Did I do that for Jesus? Or did I do that just to make myself feel generous and “good.” How did God write it in His books? I hope with love and compassion.

M.B.

Think about it:  Where can I find Jesus in my world? Have I recognized Him in any of the people I know?