Some of
our journeys are planned and others just creep up on us. Sometimes we don’t recognize that we are on a
journey. In some cases we are traveling
with others of our choosing on a planned journey. Then again, sometimes we are just walking the
path along side of someone we don’t remember.
In my
last blog I mentioned a homeless man that reminded me of one of the kings in my
Christmas crèche. He was tall and dark
skinned and his long ragged coat blew about in the cold wintery wind as I
watched him disappear from my view. The
snow could have been sand on a desert.
Then a day or two later another tall long-coated man approached me at a
gas station who wanted to pump my gas for a dollar. I said thanks but no thanks and just gave him
a dollar. Was this another king on a journey?
So it
stands to reason there must be a third king coming my way as I walk the journey
of Epiphany. And sure enough, I received a call in the office from someone I
didn’t remember. This king was a Mexican
immigrant who had contacted me earlier in the year after he left a detention
camp where he waited for immigration papers.
He was a diabetic and needed medication.
I sent him to a neighborhood health center and they took care of
him. Now, months later, he was calling me
into his journey again.
The
first thing I remember when I answered the phone was this king remembered me. He told me that since our last call he
received his green card and was on Medicaid.
He was working part time as a handyman.
But he had another healthcare emergency.
When he was in the detention camp they gave him shoes that did not fit
properly. As a diabetic he developed neuropathy. He needed special shoes and his insurance
would not pay for them. It was so
painful to stand that it jeopardized his ability to work for any length of
time. He said the shoes would cost over
$400 and he needed a down payment of $200 to just order them. He asked me to help him.
I got
the name of his doctor, and told him I would call him back. The scenario was all legitimate but I had no
idea where to go for the money to pay for the shoes. I was sitting at my desk talking to God about
this when the church priest walked by my office. I called to him and told him the story. In about an hour I received $200 from his discretionary
fund. I called the podiatrist and said I
was going to help pay for the shoes. I
still have to find the balance needed, but I am very hopeful.
So was
this the third king encounter… this Mexican who has been on a journey far
longer than I can imagine, and probably far more intense than any journey I may
have traveled in my lifetime? And why
are these kings coming to me for help?
Weren’t the original three kings wealthy dignitaries who left the safety
of their homes and traveled miles following a star just to find yet another
king and lay their gifts at his feet?
Sometimes
my imagination runs wild. Still, the journey
of Epiphany as I encountered it this year was intriguing. We are all walking these journeys with one
another. It’s just that we don’t stop to
think and ponder about where we are or who we are standing with at any one time
until it becomes really an obnoxious or weird kind of scenario. What’s your journey going to be like
today? Who will you encounter? Will you trust yourself in the next step?
(The Three Wise Men -- Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1925)
