Not all angels have wings. Sometimes God’s messengers smoke snipes, smell like beer, and sleep on the streets.
Some time ago, I was on the way to visit someone who was a hospital patient but also a prisoner. A police officer sat by his door to make sure he didn’t escape, and to ensure he had no unauthorized visitors. I had the patient’s room number written down on a little piece of paper, but when I got inside the hospital, I realized I had left it in my car. So, I turned back around with my twelve-year-old daughter who was with me, and we made our way to the parking deck.
Mark and Darren
When we reached the parking deck elevator, we met two men who appeared to be homeless. Dressed in dirty clothes and smelling like beer, they were collecting discarded cigarette butts so they could smoke them. They introduced themselves to me as Mark and Darren, insisting to me that they weren’t gay (even though the thought hadn’t entered my mind that they might be). They told me that they were both alcoholics but were pleased that they had reduced their consumption by half. I found it remarkable how open they were, sharing their lives with a total stranger.
The Poor and Prisoners
They saw a Bible in my hand and asked if I would read to them because they didn’t have a Bible of their own. I asked if there was a particular scripture that they wanted to hear. They very specifically requested Luke 4:18. I’m going to share a larger passage with you, so you can see it in context.
16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
I gaped at this choice because these two poor men had no idea who I was about to visit—a prisoner who needed healing. Yet, this was the very scripture they requested. I told them that they had given me the very words that my friend in the hospital needed to hear.
Never Apart from God’s Presence
“We shared our favorite scripture with you,” Darren said. “Now you share one with us.”
So, I turned to one of my go-to passages, a favorite Swiss army knife selection that works for all occasions.
As I read Psalm 139 to them, tears formed in Mark’s eyes. He said that these were the very words that he needed to hear—that God made him special and had plans for him, that there was no place he could go where he was apart from God’s presence.
Release to a Prisoner’s Eyes
We shared many other words together, which quite frankly are none of your business. It’s between me and them. I gave them some money, and what they did with it is none of my business. It’s between them and God. God used them to minister to my friend in the hospital, even though they never got to see him.
I never got to see him either—the police officer wouldn’t let me in. But he did say that he’d pass a paper along to him for me. I gave him a photocopy from my Bible, of the scripture these two homeless men had given me, along with a note telling the story of Darren and Mark.
What a blessing, that God’s Word can go places that we ourselves cannot go. Divine light has the power to bring release to a prisoner’s eyes, to give the captive a spiritual freedom that his body does not enjoy, and to bring healing in a hospital—the kind of healing that medicine can’t perform!
What a remarkable thing that God uses those that most of us consider the unlikeliest of people to share a word that brings life. God’s ministers can be wingless angels, homeless caretakers of the broken-hearted. Because it’s often those who have suffered the most that can empathize the best. And those who have most needed a word from God are in the best place to share it.
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