Saturday Downtown-and the blanket story-11/14/2015

"The Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this and said to himself, 'If this man (Jesus)  really were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him!  He would know she is a sinner.' (This is the woman who poured expensive perfume on Jesus' feet)  Jesus said to the Pharisee, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.'  Jesus then tells Simon the parable of the two debtors, one who owed little and one who owed an enormous amount.  When both debts were forgiven, Jesus posed the question, 'Which one will like him more?' "  Simon answered correctly and said the one who owed the greater amount, therein falling into the 'trap' of the parable.  "Then turning toward the woman and he said to Simon, 'Have you noticed this woman?'"  Here Jesus teaches Simon to "see" this "sinful woman" and all she had done for Jesus since his arrival as opposed to all the 'deficiencies' that Simon, the host, had neglected to show him since he arrived at Simon's house.  There were no vigorous denunciations of Simon, just a gentle opening of 'Simon I have something to say to you' followed by a quiet request, "Have you noticed this woman?"  Identifying and understanding not only the outcasts, but everyone around us is something we often 'neglect' as we go through our day.  --Taken from Luke's gospel, chapter 6:36-50

I had traveled a great distance Saturday and returned back a lot earlier than I was expecting.  I decided to drive through the downtown area and see what I could do to help out some people in need before going home.  It was about 1:00 pm when I arrived.  I bought some burgers and started driving around looking for folks.  When I drove down Trinity St I met a homeless man on the sidewalk named Dalton.  Although, he looked nothing like another Dalton I knew it reminded me of this "other" Dalton whom I haven't seen in at least a couple of years.  I drove over to Olive St and was about to go west on Pico when I saw another man sitting on the sidewalk.  Wouldn't you know it was the "other" Dalton!!!

Although I was able to help several folks, the main encounter happened on Venice Ave one block east of Los Angeles St.  I had driven down a very small alley and gave some crackers to a dog I've become friends with and who I've named Rocky. He serves as a guard dog at an auto repair shop. When you come out the other end of this alley you end up on a very small street that runs into Venice Ave again.  Two men were sitting in the shade up against a building on the corner.  One of the men's name was Philipe and I've known and helped him many times before (probably not in 4 or 5 months though).  Anyway, I gave them some burgers and Philipe asked if I had any blankets.  I didn't have any with me although I had a few left from last winter still at home.  I got out of the car and opened up the back to look through the clothes.  I was pretty sure I had some sweaters at least.  He must have asked me three different times if I had any blankets almost pleading with me. He said "It gets very cold at night now."  I told him I would bring some with me on my next trip.  He then wanted to know when that would be.  I told him I would be back in eight days on the next Sunday. For the rest of the trip and the rest of the day I couldn't get his 'need' out of my mind.  I got home and napped for a little while.  Since it was my birthday, we had planned to go to a restaurant for dinner that night. Oh, by the way, Philipe said his birthday was coming up on November 22 (he will be 67), the same day I promised to come back there.  Anyway, I threw two blankets into the back seat of the car and then an extra one 'just in case'. I had already talked my wife into going with me downtown to find these guys so when we finished dinner around 8 pm we took off down there arriving about 8:30 pm. Of course, it's dark and night-time by now, especially since daylight savings time is over.  When I got to the corner where Philipe had been earlier I got out and took one of the blankets over to them.  The first guy I came to didn't look like Philipe, but since he didn't have a cap on I thought maybe in the dark I just wasn't recognizing him.  I gave him the blanket still wrapped up in plastic and went back to the car to get another one for the other guy.  The other guy was definitely the guy with Philipe earlier in the day.  I took this blanket out of the plastic wrapper and spread it out over him, they were all laying down on the sidewalk for the night.  They already had one blanket each over them and had on all their clothes from the day still.  I now noticed another guy on the other side of a shopping cart full of someone's "stuff".  I went back to the car and got the last blanket and opened it up and spread it out over that guy.  Well, that guy was Philipe.  Well, they were all awake now and each one was saying "God bless you" multiple times.  Most importantly, they were much warmer now and there were smiles on their faces!  Wow!  What a privilege to serve them for our Lord.  Can you just imagine yourself laying down in your back yard on the concrete in your clothes from the day with one blanket over you?  You'd be miserable.  And that would be repeated the next night and the next night and the next, with no end in sight.  It's pretty understandable that substance abuse is a common refuge for these folks.  Especially to get through cold nights. It just so happened that last night (Sunday night) I got home from visiting someone shortly after midnight.  Even though I had on a very heavy over-shirt, I was still cold and I was only outside long enough to go from the car to the house.  The homeless folks in other parts of this country and this world who have to deal with really frigid temperatures have it so much worse.

Perhaps now, you see why I started this blog with the introduction I used.  Jesus invites us again, "Do you really see this person?" --Until next time.  John