"Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40
I will never forget a Christmas moment in Kensington that etched itself onto my soul. I was visiting the precious people who live on the streets near Huntington Station, carrying water, bananas, and small gifts. Unlike my usual visits, this time, I also carried the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke, printed on one side of a handout, with my own letter of love and reflection on the other.
These men and women, each "made in the image of God and worthy of the highest dignity and honor and respect and love," were going about their daily struggle for survival. They were panhandling, engaging in prostitution, and desperately trying to stave off the agonizing symptoms of drug withdrawal. Yet, even in this harsh reality, they graciously accepted the small offerings.
I offered each person a copy of the Christmas story. Most accepted politely, a few declined, and I honored every response. Then there was her. I had known this woman for some time. She stood on a street corner, waiting to be picked up. I offered her water, a banana, and the Christmas story. "Yes, absolutely!" she exclaimed in reference to the Christmas story, her voice filled with a sudden spark of joy. A twinkle appeared in her eye as she tucked the handout into her coat pocket, and then, in the same moment, she climbed into a car driven by a man she had never met. She was off to provide a "sexual service," driven by the desperate need to buy the drugs her addicted body demanded.
The profound depth of her faith struck me in the days that followed.
can exist within the same person,
even in the bleak landscape of Kensington.
It’s a paradox, a mystery of grace. You might not understand it, but a person can be a devout Christian, filled with genuine faith, and still find themselves trapped in circumstances that seem to leave them no choice but to engage in activities otherwise seen as non-Christian. This faith, as Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us, is not something we earn or achieve through our own actions: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."2 It is a gift, freely given by God, even amidst the struggles and brokenness of life. As one dear friend, now living with her Savior, once said to me shortly after inviting me to her place of daily worship as a devout Roman Catholic, "It's time to go humiliate myself."
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:163
It is by God's grace that He accepts the sincere faith of this woman, a woman who sees no other way to survive than to sell her body. So, please, never assume that someone on the street corner is wholly lost. That individual might possess a faith stronger than you could imagine. Christian faith, drug addiction, and the struggles that accompany addiction can coexist as God works His healing. Let us never forget this. Let us remember the woman with the twinkling eye and the Christmas story tucked away in her pocket. Let us not forget that even in the darkest corners, the light of Christ can flicker and burn.
Let us pray for the people of Kensington, their healing, their hope, and their redemption. Let us pray that they may know the love of God, a love that embraces them even in their brokenness. And let us pray that in those circumstances where their knowledge of God's redemption and Love and faith in us as His Children far outweighs our own, we have the grace to learn from them: the addicted, the 'prostitute,' the dealer. And do not think that it cannot happen that we learn about Christian faith from these amazing human beings Created and Saved by God.
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