And then you get a big ole, Texas sized, rude awakening. Well, it's not even rude, it's actually therapeutic.
The awakening is that YOU are the one who received the blessing. You are the one who saw your sin among a sea of people who carry most of their belongings on their back.
Not long after being in Unity Park, working alongside fellow NRHBC servants, a wheelchair bound, legless, toothless, black man called out to me.
"Miss, miss. You want to take a beautiful picture." he says to the woman with her ginormous camera and camera bag. Me? Want to take a beautiful picture?? OF COURSE!
Charlie says "Take a picture of that tree. That tree has survived years and years of storms and God still has it standing. Be sure to walk around and see the other side. It's rotten on the inside and yet it still stands. Now if God is going to allow for that tree to survive and stand after so many storms, how much more would He take care of us."
And just like that, Charlie delivered a sermon... about a tree. Not the first biblical lesson we have about a tree, is it? What Charlie didn't realize at the time is that we had actually met before. A couple of months ago I encountered Charlie in downtown Ft. Worth and had the opportunity to give him a bottle of water. How gracious God is to allow me to cross paths with this precious gentlemen again.
At the end of my conversation with Charlie I say to him "Have a blessed day!"
"NO!" - he says. "Have a blessed life."
So without further ado... meet Charlie, his tree, and his amazing outlook on life with Christ.
And do not have {just} a blessed day. Have a blessed life!
Charlie and his tree.
The rotten innards of the tree.
Charlie eating in the shadow of his tree.
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