Harsh Winds And The Poor Among Us

The wind was blowing so harshly against the siding on my house that morning that it woke me up before the alarm clock could.

As I lay under my covers, I was dreading going outside and facing the brutal weather, with temperatures expected to be in the teens that day.

I usually spend my early mornings sitting in my family room, drinking coffee and checking the Internet for news.

That morning – as I snuggled on a corner of my couch – an item caught my eye. An emergency medical team was heading downtown to check on a man who was unresponsive.

Someone had noticed his body under a highway overpass. It's one of those grey places built of concrete and steel where major thoroughfares intersect – a place you drive by while you are  trying to get somewhere else.

And now there was a body . . .

He probably was the poorest of the poor with no comfortable place to rest his head, no place to warm his hands.

The Internet site lit up with comments, both caring and cruel. As I sat there reading them, I remembered my pastor looking out at us one weekend, and telling us that compared to the rest of the world, we were "all rich."

He was right. Even on the coldest weekends, we arrived wearing warm coats, and hats and gloves.

I wonder what Jesus thinks about our First World wealth? Two-thousand years ago, he told a rich man, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

"For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

Over the years, some have suggested that there was a gate in Jerusalem called the "eye of the needle," a gate through which a camel could not pass unless all the baggage was removed from it.

There is no historical proof for this idea, but it's much more comforting to accept than a visual of a sewing needle and a seven-foot camel.

Jesus must have startled everyone with His admonition because they asked, "Then who can be saved?"

His response still gives consolation: What is impossible for human beings is possible for God.

As I checked the Internet later that day, people were asking if there was any news about the man, and, if so, how was he doing? The response, "They didn't page the coroner."

That was good news. There was another chance for him. Did that mean there was another chance for us?