imagine that

Imagine being a 13-year-old kid and walking into Panera Bread knowing you needed to scout the restaurant for a random customer willing to buy you a meal. Imagine who you might choose to ask. What profile would you go for? 

I stood alone at the coffee bar adding milk to my tea, wearing a black cap over a ponytail, a plain short-sleeved shirt, black pants, and flip-flops. I was stirring with a skinny wooden stick when I noticed the kid sit down and look at some others at a nearby booth. His fuzzy dyed red hair on one side of his head caught my eye, but otherwise, he looked like an average boy with a backpack. All of a sudden he was standing beside the tea bar mumbling something to me. I gave him my full attention realizing he was asking if I'd buy him food. I responded by pulling a large chocolate chip cookie out of my purse, saying I just bought it but he could have it. He declined. I would have walked away had he taken it. He was there for a sandwich, so I moved toward the counter and let him order a sandwich with a drink. 

The lady at the register knew what I was doing and did not interfere. As I inserted my debit card to pay the sixteen dollars, making sure to add a tip, I knew I would also give the gospel to this kid standing at eye level with me. 

It was like talking to my own son. I used a gospel app with an illustrated message. Rather than sitting down at one of the empty tables to eat his food, he packed it up and left. I wondered afterward if he had to take it to someone else - someone who sent him there and expected him back. 

I'll never know what's going on in his life nor how much of the gospel he took to heart, but I do know one thing. My heavenly Father must really care for that kid to put me of all people in his path. I am the worst of ambassadors for Christ when I'm out in public! I am driven to get whatever I need and get out as quickly as possible just because there are things to do back home. Tonight was different. I had a little free time to myself. That kid needed to hear perhaps a reminder that Jesus Christ is real and present in this world as dark as it is. He must have needed to hear that there is a God in heaven who desires to provide and care for him above all else. 

Imagine having to be self-sufficient at thirteen or asked to go beg in public (in America). Imagine God's people everywhere on standby, ready and armed with the Good News. Imagine being that one man or woman who gets to be the (impromptu) hands and feet of Jesus. Imagine a simple deed and word fitly spoken changing the course of one young life, or simply shining a light of hope where there is no hope. 

As I reflect, my mind goes back to an old adage in Ecclesiastes:  

"Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth... As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that" -chapter eleven.