A Place at Your Table

A miracle happened a few weeks ago and I am still processing its significance.

A woman who happens to be homeless and named “Blanket” sat at our table.

For you to understand why this is a monumental miracle you need a little backstory. Blanket is the name a woman who lives downtown and has been through indescribable pain and abuse, especially at the hands of wicked and predatory men. Because of this history of abuse, she violently mistrusts and usually hurls profanities towards most men she meets. She will claim that any man she meets is one of her abusers (since the truth for most of her life is that most men have been her abusers).

Her story is filled with tragedy that one can only begin to imagine. Personally, I have had several experiences where I felt the brunt of this pent up pain and anger. I don’t think I have had a single interaction with her without her cursing at me at least a few times. I knew the story. I knew not to take it personally. I prayed for her. I prayed for my friend Jason who sees her nearly every week and who runs the homeless ministry called Metro Relief that uses a bus converted into a food truck and mobile aid station for the homeless. I just accepted that her anger would likely last forever. I just assumed she would never be receptive to hear the truth about Jesus, let alone hear it from a man. I just took it as a given that she would never share a table with us, only shouting at us from a distance, only allowing us to set food down nearby, never to have any direct contact with her. 

Then, she sat at our table.

We shared soup and lemonade. We talked about everything. God, Princess Diana, the streets, her hometown of Chicago, her past and history. Her eye almost had a twinkle of hope as she talked about her favorite topic: Princess Diana. She believed that the princess was amazing, a demi-God of sorts. It was challenging to parse all of what she said or believed about the Princess, but it gave me an awesome opportunity.

I was able to tell her that she was a child of the One True King. I emphasized that in Christ she had an opportunity to be royalty, just like Princess Diana, to be a princess of the King of Kings. I boldly proclaimed that she was a princess and that “Nobody can take that from you.” She somehow believed me. She repeated, “I am a princess. And nobody can take that from me.” It was a breakthrough of monumental proportions. She was not simply parroting, but internalizing the gospel, likely for the first time.

But it got better. She saw my UT orange Nalgene water bottle. She asked if she could have it. I conferred with our leaders and host to make sure it was cool with them. They consented. I gave her the water bottle and said, “This water bottle reminds me of a story about Jesus. Do you mind if I share it?”

I then began to share the story of John 4, the Samaritan woman at the well. We talked about water that never permanently quenches thirst and then started talking about “living water,” water that quenches the deeper thirst within our souls. I told her that God could use her a source of living water for her whole community. I shared everything I could about Jesus and His ability to satisfy the deepest longing of our hearts. She was very receptive to the story—interjecting her own thoughts throughout.

Now, I am not going to play God and presume whether she is a believer or not. But, I can say that she is closer to God now than she has ever been.

The miracle is not just that she spoke to man about God without cursing me. The miracle is just as much that God chose to use me. I never take that for granted. I am humbled and befuddled that God would use me. I didn’t do or say anything to deserve such a great opportunity.

I was just there. Sitting at God’s table. With soup and water. And an open heart.

God, may you always keep a place at your table for sinners and misfits like us. May you keep a special chair empty for Blanket so that she might experience the Eternal Wedding Feast when you Kingdom finally comes. In the words of Derek Webb, may we forever sing…

“So there will always be,
A place to your table for me.”