A mosiac view of Christ!

It is Friday night on the streets of Spokane! The room fills with faces of over 100 men and women. Their faces are marked by addiction and hopelessness. It is easy to have this picture in one’s mind as one sees those who come to be fed, and to get a coat or a pair of socks, and yes, even a request for a roll of toilet paper. But if you look closer, if you really look, you begin to see a beautiful mosaic of the face of Christ made of precious stones. Yes, a picture made up of over 100 such stones, each etched with the face of a homeless person. The picture you begin to see is that of Christ sitting and overlooking the city of Spokane, saying, “For this reason I came to die.” If you look carefully, set aside your many prejudices, and look with a heart of compassion, your eyes begin to be opened to that beautiful mosaic.Those that come to serve each week have their own stories to tell as well, and form their own beautiful mosaic picture of Christ.
There is Dave who knows most of the people in line as just a short time ago he lived in their world. But today, after just 46 days of sobriety, he has come back to minister to the community he knows so well. He tells of being encouraged as he sees husbands and boyfriends that are sober tonight knowing that perhaps for this night, at least, their wife or girlfriends will not suffer from their hands of abuse. He offers a prayer of heartfelt thanksgiving for his life now being changed. There is James who comes not only with a heart for the homeless but also has a deep concern for a brother “in Christ” who has relapsed. He knows only too well his own continuing road to recovery and sobriety. There is Anna who comes regularly to serve. Her son lives at the mission and this is her way to give back. She shares her son’s struggles with a sense of real hope. In Proverbs it says “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. Too often I feel, we as so called mature Christians, look to our own economic and social status peers to provide this sharpening when in reality Christ can sometimes more readily use those thatwe call ‘weak’ in the faith to make us into a part of a beautiful mosaic picture of Him. Yes, we can begin to see a mosaic picture of Christ made of valuable stones even in those who come asking for such basics as a “roll of toilet paper”.