John
By Emily Glenn
I was at the park enjoying the cool afternoon when out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone walking. I turned slightly, and a weathered middle-aged man carrying a full navy backpack smiled and waved at me. I kind of waved back, slightly confused. "He kind of looks homeless," I thought as I went back to writing in my prayer journal. I was too consumed with the selfish prayers I was lifting up to really notice him … yet.
Less than five minutes later, I realized this man was walking toward where I was sitting and looking directly at me. I didn’t feel nervous or alarmed, but my guard immediately went up. After all, I was sitting alone, and I am a rather small-framed woman. "Young lady, would you mind if an old man asked you for a favor?" he inquired politely.
As he walked closer, I noticed his worn jeans and cap and the brightly colored outline of the New York skyline on his tattered black sweatshirt. "Depends on what it is," I replied, still a little suspicious that a swindler might lurk behind the kind eyes framed with silver-rimmed glasses. I figured it was all right to talk to him. He was definitely built like a middle-aged man, and if I had to, I could probably outrun him.
"I understand that," he said, "and I don’t want to ask you anything offensive or inappropriate, but I was wondering if you might be willing to buy me some lunch today? It’s very hard to approach someone you don’t know and ask them for help, but sometimes a person has to, so if I’ve said anything to offend you, I’ll understand if you don’t help me." He was so soft spoken that it was hard to hear everything he said over the roar of the fountains. He continued repeating these sentiments in a very apologetic manner for a few minutes. He seemed almost embarrassed to have approached me.
"I don’t mind going and buying you some food," I said when his humbling request was completed. "But I’d rather go get it and bring it back to you than take you with me." I fully expected him to reject this option and ask me to just give him money.
"I wouldn’t mind that at all," he said with a small smile. His answer surprised my cynical side.
We arranged the details of what I would buy him to eat, and I walked toward my car. "What’s your name?" I asked him.
"John," he answered.
"And yours?"
"Emily."
We shook hands and exchanged "it’s-nice-to-meet-yous." I left him sitting on a bench between two fountains.
I think I must have driven like a crazy person to Subway. I was really worried that he wouldn’t be there when I got back, partly because this was the most interesting thing that had happened to me in a while and also because I don’t like the kind of sandwich he asked for. I was relieved to see him still sitting there when I returned. He smiled when he saw me, like a friend who’s just received a pleasant surprise. "Emily, thank you so much," he said with feeling.
"No problem, John," I said as if we were the oldest of friends.
We spoke for a few minutes standing between the fountains. He asked me about my job, and I asked him where he was from. He asked my age and laughed when he learned he was more than double it. In our conversation he mentioned "the Lord" and his faith several times, so I asked him what he believed about God.
"I believe that God is in anything He wants to be, and everything in our lives depends on our relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ."
"I couldn’t agree more, John."
As our conversation came to end, he said, "Well, Emily, it was nice to meet a stranger who’s not really a stranger today. Who knows what the Lord’s doing in all this."
He gave me a hug, which was a little awkward, and I asked if I could pray for him. He enthusiastically told me I could. I prayed for him and made sure he had a Bible. He assured me he had two, and one was a study Bible. Then we shook hands again, and he walked away around one of the fountains.
John hadn’t unwrapped his sandwich or taken a sip of his Dr Pepper during our entire conversation.John might have been a liar, but I doubt it. He might have been an angel, but he never mentioned it. My eyes tried to follow him as he walked around the fountain, but I lost him through the sprays of water. I don’t know where he went to eat his sandwich, but I do know that John changed my entire perspective that day.Some people, like John, have much bigger problems than the petty ones I deal with. I think living alone and being seven hours away from my family are big problems. John had to ask a girl less than half his age to buy him lunch because he couldn’t afford it, and he was still so thankful for the life God has given him.
I continued to search the other side of the fountain with my eyes for John as I walked slowly back to where I had been sitting when I met him. I took my prayer journal back out, but this time I knew I had something better to write about than the complaints I had written an hour before.I began writing, "I met a man named John today."
Emily Glenn, 22, works full time at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry in Shreveport, La. She is addicted to the show Lost and loves to salsa dance.
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