It was almost 7pm on a rainy autumn Saturday night. I was walking in front of a McDonalds when I noticed a man sitting on the wet ground near the entrance of the restaurant. His body was slightly slanted as if he was trying to lie down. As I come closer, I realized that there was a steady stream of blood on the left side of his face.
“Sir, are you ok? Do you need help?…” These were some of the questions that I started asking. Although he was slow to respond, he kept on saying that he was ok and he was bleeding because of a fall. As I was talking to him, a woman passing by told me that he had been sitting there for close to an hour. She had tried to have the people inside, including the cashiers and manager, call the police but they never did.
An hour! He had been sitting there for an entire hour? I thought with the convenience of cell phones it would too easy for people to call 911, especially in the middle of a city! Unbelievable Worse still, the bleeding man was in front of a popular chain restaurant, equipped with alarm systems and emergency numbers to contact the police and paramedics in the event of an incident. Perhaps their emergency protocols are only for customers…
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold,” Matthew 24:12. So cold that a man bleeding on a popular street, in front of a popular chain restaurant, would be left for dead. Did I mention he was homeless?
Today, we have a stigma against the homeless people on the street. The popular belief is that most are drug addicts or alcoholics. Therefore, even in their state of desolation and suffering, we are encouraged to agree that it is something they deserve because of their bad choices and habits. We’ve become so “cold” that we are reluctant to even give a beggar 25 cents, while our houses have jars full of coins. Even if the coins we give will not be put to good use, at least we will give them the option of choosing the right path.
However, in the case of the bleeding homeless man, people couldn’t even give 25 seconds of cell phone plans, even when it’s free during the weekends, to call for the police. I finally called for an ambulance, and as I waited and kept the man company, the people were still eating in the restaurant, the cashiers were still serving, and others were still walking past us (except for one).
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh, ” Luke 6:20-23
I’m so glad that God is also the God of the poor or the homeless, because if it wasn’t so I wouldn’t be a Christian.
Finally, the ambulance came and the paramedics looked at him. Before he left, he firmly grabbed my hand and arm, and slowly uttered “thank you, thank you.” I was shocked, not just for his gratitude, but because we were both soaking wet. The people inside the McDonalds were relatively dry but their hearts were colder than the autumn rain.
Filed under: Testimonies, Text
