There's an old man who hands out flyers outside my place of employment. He's not always there, just on summer days when the sun is shining brightly and the wind is blowing. Sometimes I wonder in the insane way that tired, stressed, and over-heated people wonder, if he's really created by the heat. Maybe, just maybe, his frail arms, wrinkled skin, and wide brimmed sun hat are formed by the sun, brought into existence for a few hours in the afternoon to hand out flyers. He makes me think of a newsie that never retired or moved on.
I took a flyer from him the first time I saw him. When I took the flyer, he smiled. It was a smile formed on paper thin skin. Then he said, "The words of Christ." He didn't say anything more. He was already busy handing a flyer to the next person filing out of the gate on his way home. The flyers are 1/3 sheets of copy paper covered on both sides with Bible verses. As advertised, the words of Christ are printed on the flyers. The words are printed so tightly on those sheets that it's hard to make out one verse from the next. They run together, a river of words spilling over the page.
That little sheet of paper made me wonder. I thought about Jesus, whether he intended people to hand out flyers to the anonymous masses when he said to preach the good news. I wondered if any one of the thousands of people who were going home would even read the flyers. I imagined the flyers littering the streets around the gate, the words of Christ coating the ground like snow in August.
What, I wonder, is the motivation behind the flyers. Is the elderly gentleman simply sharing Jesus in the only way he knows how? Is he trying to pay for sins long past, trying to get in good with God before the hour glass runs empty? Or is he acting in good faith on a command from his Lord and Savior, a dutiful servant doing his duty without asking why? I don't know. I wish I did. But how do you ask that question?
And just what did the old newsie think of me? Did he see a razor thin man, shorn head glinting in the sun, scowling at the world? Or did he see just another faceless could-be-convert, another open hand to take a flyer? Did he see a fellow Christian or a broken heart in need of saving?
I'm not saying the elderly man did anything wrong. I'm not saying he did anything right. I'm asking questions, thinking about Jesus, flyers, children of the sun, and children of the Son.
I took a flyer from him the first time I saw him. When I took the flyer, he smiled. It was a smile formed on paper thin skin. Then he said, "The words of Christ." He didn't say anything more. He was already busy handing a flyer to the next person filing out of the gate on his way home. The flyers are 1/3 sheets of copy paper covered on both sides with Bible verses. As advertised, the words of Christ are printed on the flyers. The words are printed so tightly on those sheets that it's hard to make out one verse from the next. They run together, a river of words spilling over the page.
That little sheet of paper made me wonder. I thought about Jesus, whether he intended people to hand out flyers to the anonymous masses when he said to preach the good news. I wondered if any one of the thousands of people who were going home would even read the flyers. I imagined the flyers littering the streets around the gate, the words of Christ coating the ground like snow in August.
What, I wonder, is the motivation behind the flyers. Is the elderly gentleman simply sharing Jesus in the only way he knows how? Is he trying to pay for sins long past, trying to get in good with God before the hour glass runs empty? Or is he acting in good faith on a command from his Lord and Savior, a dutiful servant doing his duty without asking why? I don't know. I wish I did. But how do you ask that question?
And just what did the old newsie think of me? Did he see a razor thin man, shorn head glinting in the sun, scowling at the world? Or did he see just another faceless could-be-convert, another open hand to take a flyer? Did he see a fellow Christian or a broken heart in need of saving?
I'm not saying the elderly man did anything wrong. I'm not saying he did anything right. I'm asking questions, thinking about Jesus, flyers, children of the sun, and children of the Son.
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