STRANGER
AT THE GATE A newspaper reporter gave this account of an experience he had as he watched a distribution of food at a mission: "The line was long but moving briskly and in that line, at the very end, stood a young girl about twelve years of age. She waited patiently as those at the front of that long line received a little rice, some canned goods or a little fruit. Slowly but surely she was getting closer to the front of the line. Closer to the food. From time to time she would glance across the street. She did not notice the growing concern on the faces of those distributing the food. The food was running out. Their anxiety began to show but she did not notice. Her attention seemed always to focus on three figures under the trees across the street. At long last she stepped forward to get her food but the only thing left was one lonely banana. The workers were almost ashamed to tell her that was all that was left. She did not seem to mind. In fact she seemed genuinely happy to get that solitary banana. Quietly she took the precious gift and ran across the street where three small children waited. Perhaps her sisters and a brother. Very deliberately she peeled the banana and very carefully divided the banana into three equal parts, placing the precious food in the eager hands of those three younger ones. One for you, one for you, one for you. She then sat down and licked the inside of that banana peel." Then the reporter said, "I swear I saw the face of God." It doesn't matter what we have; it is what we give that makes us who we are. The poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson said it well:
If you are looking for God, you may be looking in the wrong places. You will find God in the stranger at the gate. There is the incarnation of Christ.
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