There are times in life when you meet someone that you just know you will see this person again. Well that was what happened today as I was walking home from the mechanics. I had met Pablo about, I would have to say, almost a year ago outside of La Misión one cold afternoon. He approached me and asked me if I could give him something to eat, as is typical for the neighborhood around the church. I didn't think much of it at first but then the Lord's tug on my heart and began to see this man in a new light. As we spoke for about 10 minutes he began to tell me his story, and I noted that he knew much about evangelicals and what they believed. In trying to convince me that he was worthy of my attention he stated that he too believed and he was just in a distant state from God but that there was no hope for him. I reassured him that that just wasn't the truth. It fascinates me how God uses even our own manipulative means to move us to a place He desires us to be...as Pablo spoke and used words to convince me to give him money, his very words spoke to his own heart of Christ's love.
After buying food for him I sat with him on the street and just talked for a while. In that conversation I noticed he was cold and knowing that it was going to be a very cold night I gave him my jacket. That is the moment I believe God spoke to him. He was in shock and in essence said to me, most "christians" I have met have never given me their own personal jacket to keep me warm. Jesus would have done the same thing. I have never met a "christian" who lives like that until today. I could read it in his eyes as if he said it out loud, "sure, I am given a lot of things from people who take pity on me but it cost them nothing. But not you...". As I left him he was telling his other "street" friends what I gave him, saying to them, "he is a real christian, watch over him." My last words to him before I left were, "I am convinced that we have met for a reason." Though I was certain then that we would meet again, I didn't anticipate what that meeting might be like.
Well, today as I was walking from the mechanics I heard a man behind me call out "hermano" (brother), normally I wouldn't turn but there was a familiarity in his voice. And there standing before me was Pablo, but not the Pablo that I met a year previously, this man was a new creation, with a new spirit. I must admit I was shocked! He asked if I remembered him, and I said yes, in unbelief. Not sure how to interpret my shock he then tried to convince me again, but this time with a different message, "I am the same man you helped on the street over a year ago. You gave me your jacket, remember?" I said, "yes, of course I remember you, but something is different." And he proceeded to tell me that from that moment God began calling him back, out of drugs, off the street, back into a relationship with Him. He told me he is now going to a church close to home and that he is being discipled and growing in his faith. At the end our our conversation he apologized that he couldn't return my jacket but that he was so thankful for the many people, like me, God used to remind him of His love for him during that dark time in his life. He asked me to continue to pray for him because he still struggles with his past but that God has been faithful and good to him.
There aren't many times you get to see how God works through you, so we treasure this moment as a gift and an encouragement to carry on. He is at work, in the small things, in the big things, He is at work!
