Becoming A Red Letter Christian

“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.” -Matthew 25:35 (NLT)

“…when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” -Matthew 25:40 (NLT)

It was unseasonably cool this morning.  A student from the youth group I serve and I stood outside our local Salvation Army ringing the buzzer.  We were there to help serve breakfast to the men, women and children that had spent the night in the shelter and others coming in off the street.

The people began to enter the dinning room, and all I could focus on were their faces, hardened by their experiences. Their eyes painted stories of a people who were dejected, humiliated, broken, hurt, afflicted, and disheartened.  The odor of humanity struggling to survive filled the room.  It was at that moment that I realized what I was experiencing.  It was Jesus.

He was there.  He was the face I kept seeing.  He was the eyes that painted the stories of a broken people.  Yes we were serving the hungry, the thirsty and the stranger, but in doing so we were serving Jesus.  In my feeble imagination, that is what Jesus looks and smells like.