The Least of These

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40 NIV

A couple of days ago, Pam and I attended the West Alabama Leadership Prayer Breakfast. It was a great time of prayer, catching up with old friends and being challenged by our keynote speaker, Artist Steve Skipper. BUT something more amazing happened for me, I was the “least of these.”

I sat next to a dear African American friend who has had a long and distinguished career. He and I have been involved in racial reconciliation activities for nearly 20 years. I introduced him to another person at a table – “he is probably more famous than I know, but he is better known as someone who genuinely cares for people”. He appreciated the comment and gave thanks to God.

I had intentionally chosen the chair that was facing backwards to the stage so that I would have to turn my chair completely around to participate with the prayers and the speaker. My friend sat immediately to my right and adjusted his chair so that our knees were almost touching at a 30 degree angle.

During the welcoming my friend was leaning forward over his knees as if to be fully engaged. He was dressed sharply in a suit with black leather shoes. I felt like he was looking at my khaki pants and my tan Derby lace up shoes. I was glad that I chose some of my better looking casual shoes.

Then he did it!

He bent down to tie one of my shoes that was starting to unlace. We are on the front table of a room with over 500 people at tables. Two thoughts raced through my mind quickly. First, I felt embarrassed and thought of my mom’s encouragement to always look your best…I was failing. Second, I thought it was wrong that I was letting my black friend tie my shoe, I should be tying his shoe.

I wanted to pull my foot away from him…

I wanted to ask him to stop.

What would you have done? Vowing to never be imperfect again will miss the point.

I realized he was taking an opportunity to love on Jesus by serving the “least of these”.

There will be many other times in my life when I will get to serve “the least of these.” No fanfare, No accolades. No applause. No recognition. No big deal. You see the need and you have the skills and resources to do something about the need. Just do it.

TODAY, however, it was my time to remember that I am the “least of these”. Jesus looked at me and said I was someone He wanted to love. I was a wounded child of divorce, sinful and broken. I had nothing in me that would impress the holy Creator and Savior of the universe. Yet, Jesus stood at the door of my heart and asked if I would let Him come into my heart as a child. He gave me the privilege of becoming a child, a son of God.

In the game of Red Rover, it is important to stack your side of the line with the strongest and best. Jesus identifies with the other side, the outcast, the broken hearted, the screwups, the imperfect, the failures, the sinful, the drunkards and swindlers. He stands with that group (my side) and serves us while telling us how special we are to him. You can’t tell…But I have to pause just a moment in my typing to share tears of gratitude. Maybe I can make it back to finish.

In the parable Jesus used about dividing sheep and goats and ministering to the “least of these” both groups asked “WHEN did we see you?” On this day, my brother saw me and did a very small task to show he loved me. He was tying my shoe for Jesus.I’m not that important at all, but the bigness of his heart was on full display.

Acts of kindness may go unnoticed, but the need opportunities are all  around us. We just need to be willing to serve which may be outside of our comfort zone, most of the time inconvenient, they probably DON”t deserve it and it will only take a moment.

There is a lot of accuracy in this statement – “Let’s do it for the least of these (like ourselves) and do it for/ to Jesus.””

Blessings, Love Y’all

Pastor Greg