But a few days ago, I was at the intersection of University Parkway and State Street, which is probably the busiest intersection in Orem, and I saw a kid probably no more than 22 years old with a backpack, holes in his jeans and a pair of worn glasses holding a sign that said 'Stranded, Anything Will Help.'
I don't know why, maybe it was how young he looked, how different his sign was from the usual 'Family in Need' or 'Homeless, God Bless' boards I tend to see off little center streets, but I was struck and saddened by this poor boy.
So, finding as much change as I could, and probably pissing off the people in the car behind me, I rolled down my window and waved him over. I apologized saying this was all I had on me and he looked at me with such sorrowful eyes and mustered a sweet 'Thank you, bless you.'
I continued to my destination and still felt like I should've given him more. Now, I'm not blogging about this to get any kind of salutation or pat on the bat for 'being so Christ-like' but as I look back on that little moment I had with this kid, I wonder how many times we do feel stranded, for one reason or another.
We maybe feel stranded in a dead-end job, in a dead-end relationship, in a dead-end phase or season of life. We feel abandoned. Left alone. Stranded.
Now although I don't know the story of this kid's estrangement, (for all I know he may well be a drug addict or a good for nothing loafer), but as I looked into those sad eyes of this boy who couldn't have been older than me, I felt like I wanted to give him so much more than I did, and I felt righteous indignation against the people, or person, who left him there.
Regardless of a person's circumstances, or disposition, no one deserves to be stranded. No one deserves to be cast off or shrugged off.
I hope one day I'll be able to see this boy again, in this life or the next, and hold him in my arms for a while, repeat to him that he's never alone and reassure him that I'd never leave him stranded.
xox
Megs
Love it!
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