As I sit in my favorite window seat at my favorite tea shop trying to be productive, I can't help but notice the man on the bench. He walks, lingers, sits, with a cigarette in his mouth, duffle bag in hand, and a grim look on his face as if the world kept kicking him while he was down. I instantly felt compassion for this man. I watched through the window a while wondering the hardships that this man has faced. I wondered what a godless life would look like.

A few minutes went by. His cigarette now smashed into the cold concrete he rubbed his hands together eagerly awaiting the next person to walk past. "Excuse me," he murmured, "Can you help a guy out? I'm hungry." Two women stopped, acknowledged him, gave him $15 and moved on. Shocked by their generosity, I expected the man to thank them, get up, and go by himself dinner, but that's not what happened. Another person walked by, gave, then left. Then another, then another, another. By now, thirty people had given to this man just asking for dinner.

Starting to get very irritated, I watched carefully as the guy tucked his money into the blue duffle. A few more minutes pass by, no one in sight, he reaches his hand into the bag. He stops, looks around to make sure no one is watching, pulls out an incredibly large wad of money and begins to count it. $10, $20, $30, $50, $70, $100 goes by and he is still counting. Suddenly he sees a man coming so he stuffs it back into the bag and begins with his "I'm hungry" line.

By this point I was furious, this guy was ripping off every single one of these generous souls. Bitter started to surface in my heart. I began to think... "I work all day long, to the point of utter exhaustion. This man sits on a bench for an hour and makes over $100 dollars."

Then Jesus reminded me of a story. A story very dear to my heart known as the prodigal son. For those who don't know this story, it is about a man with two sons. One of the sons asked for all of his share of the inheritance at one time. The father finally decided to give him the inheritance. The son ran away, lost everything he had, and was forced to work at a pig farm where he had to eat what the pigs ate. One day he decided to go home and ask his father if he could work as a servant at the house. As he was coming down the road of his father's house, he sees something running towards him. Coming closer he began to recognize the silhouette. It was his father. Running with open arms, he grabbed his son, kissed him, and said welcome home. From there the son was clothed in the finest robes and thrown a feast in his honor.

A beautiful story, right? So how is this relevant?

What I didn't tell you is that the other son had contempt, anger, and bitterness in his heart for his brother. He was outraged. He had never asked for a double portion of his inheritance, was faithful to his father, and never received any of the celebration his brother did during his return. He allowed anger, bitterness, disbelief, etc. to keep him from being happy about his brother's return.

This brother was me. I had all of these angry emotions toward this prodigal son who had not yet returned to the kingdom of God. I had convinced myself that God didn't love that man anymore so neither should I. But, if that man, 20 minutes, 2 days, or 2 years from now came back to Jesus, he would run to him and immediately welcome him back to the family.

Jesus's love is unconditional. Where human love fails, Jesus's love filled the gap. When I condemned this man, Jesus saw him as a prodigal and is awaiting his return.

So before you refuse to help a beggar in fear of being used, just remember that you were once a prodigal son who returned to Christ and with no hesitation he accepted you. You don't know what phase this man or woman is in, or how close they are to running back into the arms of our sweet savior.

So love even when you know love won't be returned. And don't be the son or daughter that refuses to be happy about the return of God's children to the kingdom.

Awaiting His Glorious Return,

Hope Dennie