Dents in our Fenders

Good Morning!! At the first of the year I wrote of a guest, that became a friend. She was working on the majestic Pioneer building, here in downtown. Her daily breakfast jaunts to the CIG developed a friendship. The saturday morning I found out she had been homeless was life changing for me, she had shown up at my church to listen to me speak of feeding the homeless and her life story revealed to me....orphanged, then homeless and then prison for 20+ years. I wrote of her moving on to the next town, working on another job and how much I missed my sweet friend. Last week, right as lunch was starting, I was standing in the kitchen, and I here one of the girls say...."Oh my gosh Teresa is going to be so excited, look who is coming in" I come around the corner and low and behold my sweet little friend is walking in. Brown spikey hair, with a colorful bandana, overalls and a beautiful smile with arms outstretched to me. I felt it was Christmas. My embrace was tight and felt with every fiber of my being and yes there was hugs for her sweet husband, that takes great care of her..... but really its ALL about her. We sit and catch up....we laugh and enjoy each other. The reason I am writing about my sweet friend is what she said to me. She points to her husband and says..... "He has been taking me to church even with vodka on my breath." My first thought, I hope these church people know how special she is...her life journey truly gut wrenching." My family and I went to a new church a few weeks ago and I have never in all of my 42 years of life experienced more kindness and being truly welcomed to a new place. I honestly felt guilty, because I know, I was never that friendly and welcoming to new people in the church's I have attended. Happy Beautiful Wednesday yall.... Sometimes when we see someone different than us we turn our back or have short conversations with them just to get by.... the person that is dressed in your eyes strangly, have purple hair..... or they have vodka on their breath, they matter and sometimes they are the ones the Lord puts right in front of our hearts to teach us something. My prayer is for all of us to accept ...... we are all different, with dents in our fenders, it may not be vodka on our breath but we all have along way to go. If I would have turned my back to this amazing child of God, I would not experienced the pure joy she brings to me. Its easy to be friends with those like us but even better to be friends with those that are different than us. May your day be full of blessings!!