Entertaining Angels

Mick told me a story yesterday. Last Saturday, Gail was up at the church and a cab pulled up. Out stepped a man with some papers in his hand, and he was a wreck. Sobbing, he told her that he had just been released from the mental health facility in Butner. His papers verified this, and it was apparent, and he agreed, that he was in no shape to be released. At any rate, somehow either he or the cab driver had heard about our little church, and he had been dropped off “for us.” Gail made him a sandwich and said he was welcome to hang around.

I’ve not seen this man, but this is not the first time people released from Butner have made St. Joe’s their first stop. I have no idea how they find out about us or what they expect to find when they get here. Most of the time we are singularly unprepared for them and unable to do anything other than feed them and offer them the church grounds for a place to lay their head. But it appears there is some word on the street that you can always go to St. Joseph’s.

This is anything but a pat on our back. If anything, it should make us aware that God is often sending his outcast our way. And I think he intends for us to care for them all.

Lord, have mercy.