Matthew 8:20 says, “And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath no where to lay his head.”
Our company planned an annual dinner to be held in the restaurant of the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Washington. It was a beautiful setting on the main floor. You could look out the windows onto the city sidewalk. Those walking by could also look in. There were homeless people—even in those days. I guess there always have been. The windows separated the “happy” crowd from the homeless crowd. What a world of difference!
This time of year we may have thoughts of being home for Christmas. It’s not for everyone. While we open our gifts, some people are opening a dumpster lid. I saw a couple of young women going through a garbage can in an alley, excited when they found something that would fit.
We don’t have to be down-and-out on the streets to be homeless. We may go to a house that was once a home. Perhaps the children are grown and gone. Maybe a spouse has died, leaving the halls ringing with loneliness. Christmas can be very lonely for some.
When we think of Jesus, leaving His home and coming to earth, we don’t think of Him as homeless. Isaiah 53:3 states, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
When I was in Israel, I saw a manger similar to what Jesus was born in. It was not like the cute little manger scenes I grew up with. It was a small cave-like opening where shepherds gathered their sheep at night. The rocks overhead were black from the smoke of years of fires. The ground was covered with age-old sheep manure, giving off a rank odor. A stone trough used for water or feed was most likely the cradle for the baby Jesus.
Jesus’ first few years were spent in Egypt, away from Herod’s death threat. His last years were plagued with the Pharisees trying to kill Him. No wonder Jesus identified with the down-and-out people, lepers, sick, demon-possessed, hungry, poor, crippled, deaf and dumb—the lost hopeless crowd. Jesus called the down-and-out crowd His brethren, and so should we.
Matthew 25:40 says, “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ‘my brethren,’ ye have done it unto me.”
How can we sit at a table of plenty and let the hungry world pass by outside?
Jake’s Café in Ritzville, Washington, for years (and probably still), stayed open on Christmas day for hungry travelers when most every place else was closed. When the diner went to pay the bill, there was no charge, but a “Merry Christmas.” People in town were allowed to get in on this by helping serve and washing dishes. Our family was able to do this one year. My skill was washing pots and pans. My wife and daughters were waitresses. We were blessed more than the hungry travelers.
Feeding the hungry is always a blessing. This year let us make it a point to bless someone that is homeless for Christmas!
