It was at my nephew’s wedding that our eyes first met across a
crowded room. We had delayed leaving with the group on our first Torches ride
and had 350 mile ride ahead of us to Kingman to catch up with them. I was in my
riding clothes with a collared shirt my concession to style, she was stylishly
dressed as women tend to be at weddings, hoping someone would notice and tell
her so. But as she looked me over, her facial expression changed, and with her
nose in the air turned away in disgust. It was almost funny....and waiting for
Theresa to change into her riding clothes, I sat with my nephew, another non-A
lister. Finally Theresa showed up to get me out of there, and said “I want you
to meet an old friend of ours, she wants to meet you.” And as we approached her
old friend with her back to us, I recognized the dress. As she turned around in
shock, Theresa said “this is my husband Mike.” I stuck out my hand, smiled
while laughing inside at the irony, told her it was nice to meet her, while she
looked for an exit. Busted! Some time later while shopping we would see her
again looking harried and unkempt. It was the same woman, who I wanted to go
and say hi too, but Theresa and her good sense intervened. I had had my moment
of sweet revenge, she would never know I had seen her the way she really
was.....or that I had both times.
We were attending a large church in a rich area. Celebrities,
execs, and the richer folks in town attended. One Wednesday night, the pastor
asked us to turn around and pray with someone you don’t know. The woman in
front of us was over dressed, no off the rack outfit here, me in my long hair
and beard and old racing leather jacket. Her look of surprise as she turned was
one of letting me know this wasn’t her idea, but she would permit me to pray
with her and get it over with. I definitely was not in her class...but after we
prayed she took my hand, and told me “that was the most beautiful prayer I ever
heard. What a pleasant surprise.” I guess she never thought a biker could
have heart for Jesus, and I thought about the rich and how hard it was for them
to enter heaven....
I had two friends who were girls in high school, pretty and
funny girls who would giggle a lot. Shy, hoping a boy would notice them, if one
ever did, Linda’s mom would drive her by his house to see where he lived, hoping
he was outside and she could see him. The one time I rode along said guy was
outside, Linda shrunk down in the seat hiding, and I called out the window to
him, and he called back. I was never invited to ride along on these dates, but
it made a lasting impression on me to this day. The day you may meet a
stranger....
And want to meet him. Something is different about him, and you
want to get to know him. You find his likes, his hobbies, and soon try to be
like him. You two become friends, develop a relationship, and grow close
together, a common bond. Lifelong friends, based on one chance encounter. This
is the way many of us build a relationship with Jesus. We overhear, or someone
talks to us about him, and a seed is planted. We want to know more, so maybe
pick up a Bible and read about him. Maybe start going to church, not realizing
it is the holy spirit drawing us to him. Pretty soon we have to say yes when
our spirit is touched and we want him to be our savior. We have become born
again, a one time event, but a relationship that will have its ups and downs
while here on earth. But Jesus will never abandon that relationship, and even
across a crowded room will be happy to see us. Us changing to be like him,
wanting to please him without all the religious rules, becoming the one person
it is hardest to be, ourselves. Soon we have his characteristics, and someone
may see us across a crowded room, and want to get to know us, because that thing
they see in us is Jesus. A lifelong, eternal relationship based on his love, he
loved us first. And being drawn by the holy spirit, for without the spirit’s
urging, we would never had the desire. If you have had that enchanted meeting,
you know what I mean,if not, the spirit is calling to you. A stranger wants to
meet you, and to be your friend. And as you change in Christ you are no longer
strangers, but friends. Not an acquaintance, but friends.
With one last thought. After Jesus was crucified, the guards
bet on his clothes. And I wonder why. He was just an itinerant preacher to the
world, and in this pre-ebay society, who would have cared. But yet something
made those clothes desirable. They had come so close to the man, yet it was his
clothes they argued over. Don’t you make the same mistake. This may have been
the closest they would get to heaven, but somehow that robe meant something to
them. Some enchanted evening, you may meet a stranger, across a crowded room.
It just may be Theresa’s husband, or it just may be Jesus calling to you. Maybe
clothes make the man, but in one case, the man, Jesus, made the clothes.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com