Chasing Pigeons

“There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.”  Deuteronomy 15:11

This last week I spent almost two days at an engineering conference in San Jose.  I was sent by my employer to make a presentation about the software we develop.  Many people at the conference us it, or could use it in their work.  So it was a good chance to demonstrate some of the new features we had been developing during the last year.  The conference was held at an absolutely superb hotel right downtown so I didn’t mind a night away from home.

In the morning I was preparing to enjoy my breakfast.  The conference organizers had provided a table with a wide variety of muffins, bagels, and croissants, along with fruit juice and coffee.  I had picked out several items and poured myself a glass of juice.  I found a window where I could look out at the small park across the street.  I was about to lower my head and offer up a short blessing for my humble meal when I happened to look over the park.  I noticed a man at one of the drinking fountains, and he appeared to be Mexican.  At first I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing.  I eventually realized that he was brushing his teeth at the drinking fountain.

The man’s clothes looked pretty dirty even from my remote observation point in the hotel.  I quickly surmised that a man in dirty clothes brushing his teeth at a drinking fountain in a park was most likely homeless.  I must confess that this realization by itself did not appreciably effect me.  But everything changed a couple of moments later.  It changed when I realized that the little girl nearby in the pink coat was with him.  She was probably his daughter.  She was maybe two years old.  I realized I was probably watching a homeless father and daughter start their day in the only bathroom accessible to them.

The realization of their homeless condition should have been enough to motivate me to action.  But my heart didn’t completely sink away until the man pointed at some pigeons on the ground.  The little girl started chasing them away and I’m sure must have been squealing with delight.  I wondered if she even knew it wasn’t normal to be sleeping in a park and brushing your teeth at the drinking fountain.  I decided I had to do something.  I decided that a few extra things from the breakfast table I had just left would be what I could manage.  Surely no one at such a fancy hotel would even miss them.  Yet I was strangely nervous as I considered picking up some bagels for the man and his daughter.  I would have to walk past the bellman in his fancy uniform standing guard at the front door.  It would be unavoidable for him to see me leaving the hotel and walking across the street and into the park.  I wondered if he would get mad at me for taking extra bagels.

What I was feeling would not subside and I knew I had to go through with it.  I had to try and take some food from the conference out to the father in the park.  I just hoped it wouldn’t be too bad if someone yelled at me.  You might think it was a noble thing to do, or at least the right thing.  What haunts me is that I don’t think I would have done a single thing about it, except for the little girl in the pink jacket chasing pigeons.  Jesus Christ has called me to more.  Much more.  I am praying that next time I respond quicker, and with less concern for what happen to me if I lend a helping hand.

[PhotoCredit:kojotomoto]