God's Ordinary Graciousness

God’s Ordinary Graciousness

            Hospitality is mostly a rather ordinary practice.  People are welcomed.  Certain services are offered.  Over time we get to know guests and they get to know us.  Today the work of the house included, serving coffee to over a hundred people, offering showers and a change of clothes to ten women guests, offering “socks and soap” to sixty others, and sorting donations.  None of this is particularly difficult or dramatic.  But still as the day went on I found several moments of what might be called “God’s ordinary graciousness.”  There were times that were not all that earth moving but each in its quiet way bespoke of God’s presence.

I was leaving Manna House after the end of the morning.  The house was locked up and the gate closed.  I had just sat down in the driver’s seat in my car which was parked in front of Manna House.  Earlier we had loaded it up with stuff which had been donated and we couldn’t use, so I was taking it off to Goodwill.  A man came by on the sidewalk.  He sometimes comes to Manna House.  He leaned into my open car window on the passenger side.

“Hey Pete, can I get a voucher to the Union Mission?”

Manna House doesn’t regularly have vouchers for the Union Mission, so I was a bit surprised to be asked.  But then I remembered that a few days ago, when I had cleaned out my wallet, that I had found a few vouchers.  I couldn’t remember how I had come to get them.  But now I was delighted that I had them.

“I happen to have a couple.  Here you go!”

I think the guest who had asked was as surprised to get the vouchers as I was surprised to be asked.   He had a big smile and he said his thanks and off he went.  So I say a big thanks to whoever gave me those vouchers.  “I was a stranger and you invited me in” (Matthew 25:36).

Linda Faye doesn’t come by Manna House very often anymore.  She’s got housing.  Still, she likes to wander the streets during the day and I’d see her around the neighborhood, but not at Manna House.  But today she came by to get a few things.  We were done with women’s showers and she didn’t really want a shower anyway.  She just needed a few clothing items.  The beauty of the slowness of Tuesdays is that we can accommodate those who for one reason or another have a hard time working within a system or order of hospitality.  Linda Faye was brought into the clothing room and Anne and Emily set her up just fine.  “I was naked and you clothed me” (Matthew 25:36).

Yesterday George S. returned to Manna House.  We hadn’t seen him for quite a while.  Turns out he had been incarcerated.  He gained a bit of weight while in prison due to bad food (heavy on the starches and carbohydrates) and lack of exercise (most prisons don’t have weight lifting equipment or other exercise opportunities anymore).  Very good to see him again and to know there has been liberation for a captive.  “I have come to proclaim release to the captives” (Luke 14:8).

Our guest who was stabbed and beaten last week and left for dead left the hospital today.  We’re all grateful for the prayers and concern for her.  Friends for Life is getting her into housing and meanwhile is making sure she has a place to stay.  This also makes me think of Outreach, Housing, and Community (O.H.C.) which also does such great work in getting people housed and off the streets.  People are homeless because they don’t have homes.  O.H.C. and Friends for Life get people housed.  “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).