Roger fainted one Friday morning outside of a seven-eleven and that sent him to the hospital for a week. Immediately, another one of Norman's homeless guys (who is the closest thing to a friend for Roger) came to the church to tell me what had happened. Vickie (our senior adult minister who has known Roger for quite some time) and myself hurried up to the hospital. We found a man who had been weathered by nearly a decade of homelessness.
There were six of us in that room. If you were to label us economically, we would be all over the scale. But we came together as equals, as messed-up people who recognize that life is painful.
Roger got out of the hospital on his birthday. So, of course, we threw him a party. He turned 60 and his body has aged to the point that he would pass for a good twenty years more.The same six of us who gathered at the hospital were sitting around the table on the second floor of the FLC. Who knows when the last time was that Roger sat down around a table with people that honestly cared about him, laughed, and ate ice cream. The simplest, kind and gentle small talk is so good for people.
I believe Christ was there that day. At first I felt him in Roger's loneliness, and then again in his laughter.
We even all signed a "thank you" card for the nurses that took care of Roger. He said he wouldn't mind going back and letting them take care of him again.
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