[HPN] Think on this one!

[William Tinker]

 GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS
 
This is a first-person account from a mother about her family as they
 ate dinner on Christmas Day in a small restaurant many miles from
 their home.
 
 Nancy, the mother, relates:

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in
a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly eating and talking.
Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, "Hi there." He pounded his
fat baby hands on the highchair tray. His eyes were wide with excitement
and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin. He wriggled and giggled with
merriment.
 
 I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man with
a tattered rag of a coat, dirty, greasy and worn. His pants were baggy
with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would be shoes. His
 shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were
too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose, it looked
 like a road map.  We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he
smelled.  His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. "Hi there, baby;
hi there, big boy.

I see ya, buster," the man said to Erik. My husband and I exchanged
looks, "What do we do?" Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked
at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with
my beautiful baby. Our meal came and the man began shouting from across
the room, "Do ya know patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he
knows peek-a boo. Nobody thought the old man was cute.  He was
obviously drunk.  My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence,
all except for Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the
admiring skid-row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.
 
We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband
went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot.  The
old man sat poised between the door and me. "Lord, just let me out of
here before he speaks to me or Erik," I prayed. As I drew closer to the
man, I turned my back trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might
be breathing.  As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms
in a baby's pick-me-up position.  Before I could stop him, Erik had
propelled himself from my arms to the man's.
 
 Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their
love relationship. Erik, in an act of total trust, love, and
submission laid his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder. The man's
eyes closed and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full
of grime, pain and hard labor-gently, so gently cradled my baby's bottom
and stroked his back.
 
 No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time. I stood
awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms for a
moment, and then his eyes opened and set squarely on mine. He said in
a firm commanding voice, "You take care of this baby." Somehow I managed,
"I will," from a throat that contained a stone. He pried Erik from his
chest unwillingly, longingly, as though he were in pain. I received my
baby, and the man said, "God bless you, ma'am, you've given me my
Christmas
gift."
 
 I said nothing more than muttered thanks. With Erik in my arms, I ran
for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding
Erik so tightly, and why I was saying, "My God, my God, forgive me." I
had just witnessed Christ's love shown through the innocence of a tiny
child who saw no sin, who made no judgment, a child who saw a soul, and
a mother who saw a suit of clothes.
 
 I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not.  I felt
it was God asking...."Are you willing to share your son for a moment?",
when HE shared His for an eternity. The ragged old man, unwittingly,
had reminded me, "To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little
children."
 
~Author Unknown~