Dec. 19: Home by Greg Gallaher
“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me into your home” (Matthew 25:35).
It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was just settling in for an afternoon nap when someone began knocking repeatedly on the front door of the parsonage. Frustrated by the intrusion I flung open the door and there stood Kenny—a pitiful drunk who alternated between being homeless and living in small rented rooms. His current “home” was the back of a warehouse near the church where I was the pastor.
This was not the first time Kenny had come to me for help. My normal routine was to hand him $5 and send him on his way. This time God wouldn’t let me off the hook so easily. A thought further disturbed my peace, “What Kenny needs is not another handout. He needs a friend.” So… for the next several weeks, I spent a lot of time befriending him—picking up the bits and pieces of his story along the way. He was forty-something years old, the youngest child of alcoholic parents who abused him from an early age. His father beat him. His mother threatened to kill him with a butcher knife. His uncle gave him his first drink of moonshine when he was eight; he passed out. Several teenagers sexually assaulted him when he was an adolescent. Little wonder he had a speech impediment and impaired intellectual abilities.
Kenny made a profession of faith one Sunday during worship insisting that I baptize him. It was probably his fifth or sixth baptism. I wondered what kind of life required multiple “washings” for so much brokenness and pain? For conscience’s sake, I did not refuse his request. A Baptist pastor laughed when I told him what I had done. Apparently, every denomination in town had led him to Jesus.
I managed to get him into a treatment facility for his alcoholism without charge. After four weeks, he was released with no place to go. The Holy Spirit moved upon both Connie and me independent of the other, prompting us to let Kenny make his home with the four of us. We barely knew him, so the idea seemed risky, if not outright crazy since we had two small sons. However, when word got out in the church, not everyone was happy about it. At times, neither were we!
Every day, Kenny woke up at 5:00am, making way too much noise in our only bathroom (in what was a fairly small house). He kept a wad of chewing tobacco tucked between his lower lip and teeth at all times to help maintain his sobriety; cups for his spittle were always nearby. He generously greased his hair with a cheap, smelly pomade. His toothbrush-style mustache reminded me of Adolph Hitler. He brought all kinds of junk into our den—a converted carport where he slept. Annoyingly, a single, dirty dish didn't remain in the sink very long before he rinsed it off and returned it to the kitchen cabinets. For five months our home was his home until he seemed ready to be on his own.
It’s been a long time since I last saw Kenny—over 35 years have passed. Several years ago the director of the local rescue mission told me that Kenny was a frequent guest and doing pretty well all things considered. I recently found an address for him online. He’s eighty now (if he’s still living). I wonder, Does he remembers me? I will never forget him.
This time of the year, skeptics have a hard time believing in the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth. These miracles seem irrational in a scientific age. As a tenet of faith, I have no problem believing either doctrine. After all, what is more miraculous—a teenage girl giving birth to the Son of God or the transformation God wrought in our lives when we opened our home to Kenny?
I learned so much from him even though he was barely literate. Few things taught me more about the love of God than my time with Kenny. To this day I am amazed at the way God put all that together. Romans 11:33 asks, “How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods! For who can know what the Lord is thinking?” (NLT).
This holy season is full of mystery and miracles. Are we ready to receive them? Jesus said, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me into your home” (Matthew 25:35).
Prayer
Jesus, thank you for coming and making your home among us. Thank you also for making your home in ours hearts by the Holy Spirit. Open our eyes to see you in unexpected people and to offer them hope and a place of refuge in your name. Amen.
