Sometimes glimpses of Heaven take you by surprise and you don't realize it till hours later sitting on a hillside thinking back on it. We had served "Street Youth," homeless youth living on the streets near UT's campus. I've grown up blessed with enough comfort that I would have liked, and here I'm put into their turf, living day by day with what the Lord gives them. I'll get to the punch though. Turns out in Austin that week was "Roundup," sororities and frats from all over Texas were pouring in to party. To give context, the street youth guys and the frat guys did not play well together. But, there was a moment, a glimpse of heaven that afternoon. We set up long sheets of paper and set out paint everywhere on the side of a street and literally just started asking people left and right of every kind to come paint a picture with us. People from all kinds (frats, sororities, Hindu people, homeless people, moms, daughters, shop owners, and their dogs) and they all flocked in.
There was a moment when I was standing on the street and I looked back to our mural and the people painting on it and there was a long stretch of section where there were no FLiC members talking and loving on these people. I will admit I snapped. But then I was taken aback, because in that section were two girls covered in paint from an earlier party, a guy, and a homeless man all laughing together, painting together. And for a split second I saw it. I saw community in a way it that God intended to be. This social barrier was broken, people who normally never interact saw each other as the same human being, putting away all the past, all that they had. Loving each other in the simplest of ways, through art. It was extravagant. The way God intended it to be. A garden of Eden in the Middle of Austin on the weekend that it was least expected. God works in incredible ways.
Incredible experience #2
It happened at "church under the bridge," a church for the homeless literally under a bridge in Austin. We were told to go around and "talk" to people and try and open up to them. I was skeptical at first because if I were in their shoes I wouldn't want some well dressed, rich person coming and trying to relate to them when I've literally never have gone through what they have. So what did I do? I stood in the back and watched. There was a man, also standing off to the side, arms crossed, just observing as well. Long story short, I went up and talked to him, we exchanged the ever tiring normal questions and then things got deep. He told me his testimony.
As I was listening I was brought to tears, not because he had been through some horrific tragedy, but because his story, although we grew up in opposite ends of the spectrum, was exactly the same as mine, down to the sibling and her desires. I was blown away. We struggled with the same struggles, we had the same desires, he was like an older me? I was immediately humbled and we talked through life and our conversations got deep. Deep as in Psalm 42:7 deep. God crashed his waterfalls of blessings on me that day through this man under a bridge. His words encouraged me in ways that words cannot fully capture, and Todd (the man) served me. God works in ways that is beyond our comprehension and talking with how he got to be at church that day was a miracle in itself, truly divine. As I was leaving we prayed and I told him that I hoped to see him again someday. Without missing a step he looked at me and said we would. God continues to bless me in the craziest of ways and if you've made it this far down my blog, I commend you. I hope and pray God continues to have these divine encounters in the simplest of ways like people gathering to paint and a man under a bridge. Glory be to God in the highest.
Psalm 42:7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and breakers have swept over me.
