You Did for Me

Matthew 25: 34,35  Then the king will say to those on the right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.”  The righteous reply “When did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing?” And the king will tell them, I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”

For the past few months two friends and I have been kayaking down the Brule river. Well, last month (December) the river got the best of my two friends and they landed up in the water. They tell me it was cold, I’ll take their word for it. We lost a paddle (I know, I should have brought an extra one) so two of us met up down at our car and my third friend was going to walk out to the road and we would pick him up.  When we went to pick him up he was warm and dry and sitting in the car with a man who lives on the Brule river. This man invited us into his home, gave us hot coffee, cookies and dry socks!  We sat and talked and heard how he has helped other people who had lost their battle with the river, but “never in the winter” he told us. At the expense of my two friends getting cold and wet we were able to see this verse from Matthew played out. This stranger feed us, gave us something to drink and clothed us (dry socks). And now we are no longer strangers. In a side note I had also been praying that God would put me in touch with someone who lives on the river a place to meet if needed, that would allow another measure of safety when I bring people on the river. So again, at the expense of my two friends getting wet, God answered my prayer. 

God is watching us and He takes notice of even the small things we do for each other and he remembers. Jesus said, “When you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you were doing it to me!” Every day we are presented with opportunities to help people around us, it is up to us to do it.