Just what does an angel look like...? Well this isn't quite what I had in mind...
While Bill and I were taking a stroll along the fishing pier we chanced to meet an old guy. We started chatting about fishing and ended up talking (or perhaps listening) as this guy spun a very long tale. Old guy talked about many, many things; growing up out west in the mountains, hunting, fishing, getting trapped on a breakwater during a Northeaster, his military service, his trucking business, and on and on. It was a chance encounter and it was rather odd to be talking to a complete stranger. I wondered if he had a bit too much to drink or if he was just lonely -yet he talked of a wife and a large connected family. I found myself really wanting to listen as he puffed away on three cigarettes. The most striking thing were his tales of picking up canned goods for very little money at warehouses and then donating them to the poor and needy in his parish. He once picked up 40 skids of toilet paper that was going to be thrown away because the outer cardboard boxes had gotten wet. He loaded the toilet paper on top of a load of steel and hauled it to the local parish school, rectory, and church. The priest didn't have to purchase toilet paper for a year.
We finally bid our new friend "good evening" and wondered why such a chance encounter. Perhaps... an angel unawares? Old guy was in a pretty rough package but it does make you think about how God looks upon the heart... not the packaging.
Have you met any angels lately?
