Thanks for showing up

“Hey, thanks for showing up.” That was our greeting as we entered a homeless encampment under the freeway. “If everybody just came out and got to know us, it would be different.” The heart of our greeter under the freeway is gentle. He tells us that he appreciates us and asks for a Bible. I pull a New Testament out my bag and hand it to him. “Oh thanks, I already have one of those. Do you have the one with Genesis, in the beginning?”

I think about how in the beginning “the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). How God created us and “saw everything he made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). The story of God. The story of creative redemption. From the empty void to wholeness.

The homeless in Seattle have no control over their story. The media presents them as lazy criminals who are killing “your” city. The fact is, most homeless folks are working day and night to improve themselves and their situation. Julie and Jason are both clean and sober. I drive them to the food bank twice a week. The thing that helped jumpstart their sobriety was living in a tiny house village. The story of addiction is common among those living on the street. Many of my homeless friends had a family member introduce drugs to them at an early age. Parents introducing a child to heroin is not uncommon. “I had no choice after my dad got me high.”

Driving back from the food bank our conversation turns to sobriety. Jason lets out a cry of gratitude. “Thank you, God, that I am not smoking crack anymore.” Julie from the back seat, “I give God all the glory. I don’t have liver failure or Hepatitis C.” John asks me to share my miraculous sobriety story. I oblige. “I prayed that I would quit drinking if God provided a job for me. While I was praying, the phone rang with a job offer. Three months later I prayed to Jesus and felt the healing presence of Christ.” “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him” (John 1:1-3, NLT). Thank you, Jesus, for showing up ─ for existing in the beginning!

— Michael Cox