I was headed to the office to pick up an appointment card when I saw one of the homeless regulars that visits us sometimes. Hanging out so that she could let her phone charge, I noticed she was missing her shoes as I approached. She immediately started telling me that her feet were hurting and I sat down on the ground in front of her and noticed that her feet were swollen. Not only were they swollen, they looked like she had been walking around without her shoes on and were really dirty and had a few open sores. Her feet looked rough and I other than letting me clean them off a little bit and pass on some Ibuprofen, she wasn't interested in much else that I had to offer. No shoes, no bandages. Just some TLC, medicine, and a ride to a friends house because walking at the time would have been murderous on her ravaged feet. She smiled at me after she unloaded all her bags from the car and it was then that I realized that providing a solution to a problem (in her case, the condition of her feet) sometimes takes a back seat to simply being there.
It wasn't long after that I got a call about one of my clients who received a call that she was being evicted from her apartment and within the next couple of hours, she and her two elementary age sons would have nowhere to go after a long day at work and school. As I raced across town to explain to the apartment manager that she had a new job and just needed one week before she received her first full paycheck and plead with them to let her stay, her fear became my own. Knowing that she was doing everything right, that nothing that had happened to her was her fault, my heart broke as I thought about how it would have to feel to try and figure out how I was going to explain to my kids that they had no food, clothes, or even somewhere to sleep for a few days. Knowing that this would be their reality very shortly.
Unfortunately, management could never be reached. I did plead with the maintenance man to let them in for just a minute so that they could grab some food and clothes and he agreed, but couldn't give them long to do it. We went to the apartment and the kids were waiting when we got down there. The youngest started crying as soon as we pulled up and needing to go to the bathroom and was asking for an after-school snack. Knowing that they basically had to grab whatever they could carry with them as fast as they could, the process was overwhelming. Mama headed to the kitchen and started grabbing food and water while a sister who had showed up grabbed laundry as quick as she could. The kids were given bags to fill toys with and it was a whirlwind of emotion and necessity combined. Finally, my client got a call that she could stay with a friend so as we went different directions, I headed to the grocery store and wept for her for the next thirty minutes from the parking lot.
How would I have explained to my children those circumstances? How overwhelming was it for her to even fathom the thought of not having food to feed her children? The tears fell hard as that reality became real in such a tangible way through her story. There was nothing about this that she deserved yet here she was, trudging through. I think the thing that surprised me the most was that through all this, the last thing she said to me was, "Thanks for everything you tried to do today. Do you think I could come to church with you on Sunday?"
Somehow, through everything that happened today, she experienced love. It was messy, angry, desperate, so desperate, but love shone through all of that and hope remained after all.
"In a world that is so confused about what love is, I'm more convinced than ever, that when they see it, and when we get it right and we live it out, love never fails." (Tim Britton, 9/10/17)
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