Give us this day our daily bread.

I was walking home from class last week feeling exhausted and near the end of my strength. I usually don't walk the 40 blocks home but for some reason this night I decided to. Just when I was about to give in and get on a subway, I was stopped by a man in a wheelchair who simply said "Hi" to me. You wouldn't know it from a distance by his huge smile and freshly shaven head, but as I walked closer to him, I noticed he was homeless and also had both legs amputated. Immediately, he told me he was in need of a job and a place to sleep. I felt my heart sink because those are two things I don't know how to give. 

I stopped him mid-story and asked him his name. 

"Jordan," he said as he reached to shake my hand. 

Something unworldly happens in me when I learn someone's name. I started thinking about how this man was once a 4th grader too - just like my sweet students right now. I imagined what he was like in 4th grade - before his legs were amputated and before he ever slept a night on the streets. I wondered what his biggest dreams and greatest fears were, and what he always wanted to be when he grew up. 

He told me how much he loves God and how there was never a time that God didn't respond to his needs. "He has always given me everything I need," he said smiling. 

I looked down at his torn clothing, 

his two legs that stopped at the thighs, 

his tattered blanket that hung down to where his knees and feet should have been. 

"Really?" I asked. "There's not one thing you can think of that God hasn't given you?" I just found it so hard to believe. 

"Jane I've seen people in my old nursing home in comas and on life support. I've known people that are so addicted to drugs that their feet are walking but on the inside they're dead. I cry for people like that. But I'm not one of those people. Some people think I'm cursed because of my amputations but even these are a blessing to me. I used to be in so much pain until God provided me this surgery. When I look down and see that my legs are gone, I'm reminded God freed me from pain. He gives me everything I need." 

Maybe this incredible man wasn't the disabled one of us after all. 

So easily I'm blinded by lies, paralyzed by obstacles, and crippled by fear on a daily basis. Caught in the pursuit of becoming a special education teacher and serving the disabled in Uganda, I realized on this night that God is first calling me out of my own poverty, out of my own disabilities, into freedom from fear. Into fullness of Joy. Into His heart. 

I told Jordan I've been asking God for one sign or confirmation from heaven each day that I'm on the right path. 

"Today you were it. My daily bread from heaven," I told him. He smiled so big when I said that. When you run to the poor, you run straight into the arms of Jesus. 

"I don't usually prefer to talk to people. I usually let them walk by," he said. 

I asked him what made him talk to me. "I don't know," he said. "I knew that you have an open heart. And I knew that you know Jesus. The Bible says that when two or more are gathered in His name there He is with us...do you know who's with us right now?" he asked. 

Jesus, I said. Jesus is with us. He placed his hand over mine. "I talked to you because I wanted to be with Jesus," he said. 

At first I thought that God placed this man in my path in order to remind me that I was made to serve people with disabilities. But His plans for me are even greater than that. He placed Jordan in my path that day in order to remind me that I may be disabled, but God is my healer. My spirit may be poor, but my Savior is rich in mercy and abundant in grace. 

How beautiful it is when we extend the love and presence of Jesus to one another. We were created to walk into His glory together.

One beautiful soul. Beloved child of God. 

*Name changed for privacy. Story and photo shared with permission.