Chapter Seven - The First Time I Saw The Lord

Back in the mid 1990's, I had to visit a Ford Motor Company plant in Jaurez, Mexico. It was short trip, to investigate some problems with a product that was in charge of for the Allen-Bradley Company.

Coming back from the plant, the traffic crossing the USA/Mexico border was a crawl. It was very hot as well. Sweltering, would be the word. As we were slowly rolling, I noticed a woman and young girl, dressed in black clothing very ornately decorated with embroidery. I asked the man driving the car, who was also an employee of the company, and from Mexico, if the woman and child were dressed in traditional Mexican clothing. He said, "Oh no. Those are Indians. They live up in the mountains, but there is a drought, and they come down here to beg for money."

Upon hearing that, I reached for my wallet and started getting out of the car. I thought that twenty bucks to me, was nothing. Twenty bucks to them would mean food and water. The man driving the car I was in, started shouting at me to get back in, "GET BACK IN THE CAR!!" Startled, I got back in. He said, "If you give them money, they will never learn to take care of themselves!"

As the car, with me sitting stupidly in it, rolled through customs, I realized I had failed a big test. I let someone else tell me what was the right thing to do. I was ashamed of myself. I rarely think of biblical verses, but something Christ said popped into my head, "'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.....I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

I screwed up, big. What was $20 to me? Why would I let someone else tell me what was right and wrong? I have seen God a lot since them. Rarely it is when I see a thing of beauty. That's too easy, too obvious. It doesn't take a lot to see beauty in beauty. Can you see god in the homeless man you just passed on the street? Do you see God in the street walker, the crack whore? Do you see God in a death? What if everyone and everything else is God? What if everyone looking back at us, are looking at us through the eyes of God? What if, what if, what if?

Is it so far fetched? Do you really think Jesus would be on TV in a suit and tie, with perfect hair and teeth, stumping for cash? Or do you think he would be hiding were you would have to look to find him?

These are the questions I ask myself. Maybe you should ask yourself them too.

Copyright 2008 Ted Sky All rights reserved.