She looked the part of an addict. Gaunt and pale, her clothes hanging loosely on her concave frame, her face set in lines of despair. Should I speak? Why would I want to connect with this woman? Why would I span the gap between us and approach her world? Yet…
“How was your day?”
Within seconds her story came out. A boyfriend dying of kidney failure.
In a five minute walk to the parking lot, I promised to pray for Walter. She opened up with gratitude and responded with, ‘I’ll pray for your husband too”. She offered a warm handshake and then we went our separate ways, but I’m still praying and remembering Isaiah’s words from so long ago.
“There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. “ ( Isaiah 53, The Message).
Just think of that. This woman and I are no different. We are all the same at the foot of the Cross. And Jesus, perfect and holy, became what we are so that we could become sons and daughters of the living God.
“When I survey the wondrous Cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride. “