Romanian Beggar Woman

I have not had a shower in over 24 hours, my hair is going on day 3 of not being washed and I am sporting cut-off long exercise pants and a t-shirt.  I'm not a pretty sight.  My face is red.  I'm sweating.  I stink.  Yet, in my current state, I was in better shape and in better condition to the nose than my friend I met this morning on my walk:  Romanian, dressed in layers and wears a head covering, she held an old paper cup in hopes that the well-dressed passersby would drop her a few coins.

I was near the end of my walk.  I had been talking to my Creator about all kinds of stuff.  I was feeling so ... blessed.  I had laid my "stuff" out for Him to hear and felt like He had given me such great direction.  As I spotted her she disrupted my heart rhythm.  Suddenly, all the "stuff" I had been discussing seemed so ... trivial.

When I caught a glimpse of her face I knew He was telling me to talk with her.  I knelt down by her side, not to prevent anyone from dropping their coins into her paper cup, and asked her if I could ask her a question.  She gave me that all too familiar blank stare.  She didn't speak German.

I spoke anyway.  As I spoke, I prayed that somehow my words would lodge in her heart and He would do the translating.  I told her that God loved her ... and sent His Son, Jesus, for her.  When I said, Jesus Christos, she pointed to the sky.  She said, in Romanian, she was Orthodox and did the sign of the cross.  I told her that I could not give her all she needs, but Jesus could, and to Him I would pray.  She said some other stuff and realized her words made no sense to me.

We held hands and I told her once again that Jesus loved her more than she could think or imagine.  I left.  As I resumed my walk, I was arrested by tears.  As I walked, and my nose began to run and I began to make that little sobbing sound but I didn't care.  My heart was so grateful that out of the mysterious mystery that is God, Holy Father, Creator of all things ... He used a beggar woman to show me how much I have to be thankful.  It's not the material things ... it's the relationship!  What she needs most is the knowledge of a living God who has saved her out of His great love.  I sobbed for her to know that ... to know Him.

How many of us have forgotten what it means to be grateful not for our things ... but for our relationship with God?  Oh that we would be reminded that without Him, we sit on the street like beggars ... with nothing.  He is all we need.  May we not let our affluence and things and blessings keep us from being effective about sharing what people really need!