This afternoon I made a trip up to Daybreak. We weren’t officially having our Sister Circle today, but since the shelter is closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I wanted to go up and see our friends and wish them a Merry Christmas.
As I was saying goodbye to Mac and wishing him a good Christmas, I gave him a hug and noticed that his coat was damp. The perils of living outside. When it rains, everything you owns gets wet. It is hard–this balancing loving someone whose choices put his very life at risk. He has other options, other resources. This is his choice at this time, I have to keep reminding myself. It still didn’t keep me from worrying about the wind that was getting colder by the minute and him in those damp clothes as he limped away to his “camp” with his friends.
I was lost in my thoughts, standing on the sidewalk outside Daybreak watching him go, when this gentleman carrying two bags stopped and said hello. I turned toward him.
“You volunteer here, don’t you?” he asked.
“Yessir, I do.”
He stuck his hand out and introduced himself. “I’m Sanford Robertson. I’ve been in Macon twenty-three days now. I’m from Hollywood, Florida.”
My mouth dropped. “Hollywood, Florida? Really? My Mama was born there.”
He smile grew bigger. He asked me if it was a specific hospital. I couldn’t be sure and told him so. I told him how I’d misunderstood when I was little about Mama being born in Hollywood, as you might imagine.
He laughed. “Yes. A lot of people get them mixed up. It’s not THAT Hollywood.”
Y’all. I felt like I had a wink from my Mama. Especially with the next words he said.
“You know there’s a blessing coming for you, right? You just have to hang on a little while longer. But yes ma’am, there’s one coming for you.”
I felt like Mama was there encouraging me again. Hang in there. It will be okay. Oh my heart.
Mr. R continued to share his story. He’s in town because he trusted someone, a fiancée, a little too much, followed her here, and gave her all his money. After which she was no longer his fiancée. And so he’s stuck here. Until he can work something else out.
In the meantime, he walks the streets of Macon making people smile and blessing them. And sharing the spirit of Christmas and the Spirit.
Last week he found himself at the bus station. There was a young woman there, crying her eyes out. “She was a child really,” he said. “Twenty-two years old. Babies having babies. She has two.”
He approached her and asked, “Why are you crying, child?”
She sobbed harder. He stood there until she could gather herself and speak again. Turns out she was in a hard place. She and her sister live in a home together with their four little ones between them–the youngest less than two months old. She can’t pay the bills and she’s scared.
Mr. R offered to pray with her. She nodded. They joined hands and he prayed. He’s a preacher’s kid, so he’s heard a few in his life. After the prayer, she thanked him and he started to walk away.
“You ever have one of those moments when the Spirit taps you on the shoulder and wants you to do something, and you look around sure that He’s got the wrong person? That He doesn’t really mean YOU?”
Ummm, once or twice, yessir. Sure have.
“Well, the Spirit told me I should offer her the groceries I was about to pick up from the Mission. I shook my head, and I kept on walking. At least I tried to. Yeah, I tried to keep on walking away, but it’s like my feet were frozen in place. You know what I mean?”
I do. We’ve all got a bit of Jonah in us, don’t we?
He sighed. “Well, I finally figured out I wasn’t going to be leaving without doing what the Spirit wanted me to do, so I turned back around, and I told her where I was heading and that whatever I had coming my way was hers. Hers and that family of hers.”
He tugged at his jacket. The wind was picking up a bit. He continued his story. “Then she asked me, ‘Just tell me this one thing. Why do you want to do this?’ and I told her, ‘I don’t want to do this. But I’m going to.'”
I laughed. He chuckled too.
“Well, I went on down to the Mission. I told the man there, I was straight with him, that things had changed a bit, and that I had a friend who was in a bad way. Worse than I was. And he loaded me down with a ham, turkey, case of peanut butter, rice……” He listed all the things he could remember receiving. They were very generous. He estimated it was $75-$80 worth of groceries. But I’m telling you I went to the store just the other day. It was worth a lot more than that.
Mr. R started thinking about how he was going to get all of these groceries across town. “That devil was trying to get me to keep those groceries for myself, I can tell you that. From the moment I tried to walk away from her, he was a’tryin’ to change my mind. But I was having none of that. I used to be full of foolishness, but God’s working on me, and I’m not going to go back on my word that easy.”
He stood outside the Mission. He had $3 to his name, all in his pocket. He offered it to a few folks to drive him over to the young woman’s home. Seems they all were headed in a different direction. Again that devil was offering him an out. Then he saw a grocery cart close by. Just there, belonging to nobody. So he loaded everything in it. And tried to figure out how he was going to push that heavy cart all the way to her home.
“Then I seen one of them homeless fellas from down here [Daybreak] walk by. I told him I had $3 and that was all I had, but it was all his if he’d help me push this cart over to her house.” He paused and waved his arm out. “We pushed that thing up all them hills, but you know, he stuck with me the whole time.”
When he got there, the young woman wasn’t home. Her sister was, and she could scarce believe her eyes. He opened their refrigerator and there was a half jug of milk and a bottle of water. And that was all. Hardly anything in their pantry either. And they weren’t going to get any more assistance before January 1.
Y’all. I can’t even.
He unloaded, and the sister timidly asked him a question. “Mr. R? Do you mind if I give you a hug?”
He said he has granddaughters older than these girls, and that when that “child” hugged him, she held on tight. “You just don’t know how you’ve saved us,” she said. “You just don’t know.”
The young woman who hadn’t been home when he made his delivery called him at the shelter later on. She, too, was in tears. “I had no idea you’d bring this much. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
By now the clouds were gathering and turning into shades of dark gray. My sweatshirt that had been too warm on the ride up to Macon was nowhere near enough as I stood there listening to Mr. R’s story. I was thankful he had on a few more layers.
“So you see, like I told her then, there’s a blessing coming, child. I don’t know from where or when, but you hang on. It’s coming. One day. It will come.” He asked me my name. I told him. “For you too, Tara. It’s coming.”
I looked at Mr. R, and for a moment, I was really puzzled. Could it be that this man, who was headed out this afternoon, walking to the Salvation Army in the hopes of finding a bed for the night, had not a clue that HE was her blessing? And in many ways–mine for today?
As we parted ways, me not sure if I would ever see him again or if I would get to hear how his story turned out, I gave thanks for Mr. R and his story. And his birth and life in Hollywood, Florida. And for his ways, so much like my Mama’s, who also would have given the shirt off her back if someone needed it. Or her ham and turkey and last $3. Whatever it took.
What a story for Christmas! And everyday. He reminds me of The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke. He was interruptible, and he changed lives with his gift. I wonder if those little ones looked at the man coming through the door with all those goodies loaded in a grocery cart, and thought that Father Christmas, Santa Claus himself, had arrived at their door.
The Spirit called him, and he answered. May it be so with all of us. (And God, when (not if, I’m afraid) I try to walk away, please freeze my feet too!)
Love to all. And to all a good night. Sleep well, Mac, I pray you are somehow miraculously warm and dry. And Mr. R, may you sleep the slumbers of a soul done good, and those little ones and the sisters with full tummies, may you dream the sweet dreams of those who have been touched by love, a love that asks for nothing in return. The true Spirit of Christmas. And the Spirit of every day.
I Might Need A Nap 