In 1999, I attended a divorce care meeting at St. Mark. I'd been divorced for over a year but I still felt lost and found myself struggling to get through each day. One of the leaders mentioned their belief that we all have a guardian angel. The next day I left for California to visit my son, daughter and son-in-law, who had been giving me great moral support. After my son, Matt, went to work, I took a walk. A block from his apartment I saw something laying on the edge of the sidewalk. It was a "Guardian Angel" pin, still attached to the display card which said, "Angel Blessing upon You!" Of all the people that walked along that sidewalk, why was I the one who saw it?
While I was there, I planned to visit Matt at his work. He told me to stop by a coffee shop where his friend Laura worked and she would give me directions. As I sat at the counter talking to her, a homeless blind man walked in. He asked if he could fill his cup with water. "How about a cup of coffee, Francis?" Laura replied. He declined saying he couldn't pay until the next day. She offered him a cup "on the house" and he sat down next to me. Laura introduced us. Francis told me he lived on the street and that he tried to put smiles on people's faces, especially those of children. He said, "The more I give, the more I get back. You'd be surprised how many wealthy people walk around with frowns." I thought to myself "this man is blind and he's talking about putting smiles on people's faces." Francis also told me he bought food for other homeless people. "I always say, more than NEED is GREED", he said. (My son later told me Francis lost his sight in Vietnam and he used his disability check to help others) When Laura told him I was on my way to visit Matt, Francis gave me his bus transfer. Francis reminded me of the guardian angel in It's a Wonderful Life.
In 2002, I was back in California, in a restaurant with Matt and his girlfriend. Before receiving our meal, Matt said that Francis was sitting near the restaurant entrance. I went out and sat down on the sidewalk beside him. I thanked him for our previous talk and told him how much it meant to me. I told him I'd passed his story to many others and asked how he was doing. "I'm a survivor" he replied. I told him to take care, took a $20 bill out of my wallet and put it in his hand. It was Francis, a blind homeless man, who made me realize---life isn't about what we've lost, but about what we give.
M.K.
This story is from the 2005 St. Mark Presbyterian Lenten Devotional.
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