What Kind of Greeting is This?

"'Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you,' Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid...'"

Some days you don't realize how the Scripture you start the day with will shape absolutely everything.

I pulled into the porch this morning.  Well that's what most people call it.  I guess our street family calls it "Jacob's."  After today?  We're the "underwear church."

To back the story up just a little bit....  Yesterday I had the priviledge of having coffee with Carolyn.  We talked about a lot of different things.  Silliness.  Her spending time studying abroad.  What we wish the church would look like.  Dreaming about the future.

As we walked back 99 was sitting out on the half wall with his niece.  He was in fine form (for those who know him personally, you could imagine...) and we shared with him that this cool group of people named Thrivent had donated money and we went to Walmart and bought as many pairs of socks & underwear as we could.  So we asked if he could pass the word along that I would be there the next day from 10 am - Noon for anyone who wanted to stop by.  Even though he was pretty drunk, he kept repeating the time back to us and was pretty excited, so we thought a couple people might stop by....

I arrived at the porch this morning and there were 7 people waiting on me.  It was so fun to see people's faces.  Socks, underwear, gloves, blankets, hats, sweat pants, thermals, shirts....  The doorbell didn't stop ringing.  It was so fun to say Merry Christmas to people.

Around 11.30 am, I was walking back from coffee with Tall Dan.  As we approached the porch, a younger looking guy I hadn't met before was ringing our doorbell.  I asked if we could do anything to help and he said that he was here to volunteer.  I was processing and trying to figure that out when he said that someone had told him that from 10 - Noon, that there was a project going on.  And he looked at Tall Dan and said... "You gave me a sandwich one day when I was hungry and rang the doorbell, so I wanted to come and help to say thank you."  Well, we worked out that 99 had gotten some wires crossed, but he really wanted to help with something so we invited him back in January.

As the day kept going and the doorbell just kept ringing....  Person after person after person.  Until almost everything (well but the socks because we went a little overboard and didn't plan proportionally on those) was gone.  Right before I was going to leave at about 4 pm, I was standing talking to someone in the parking lot and a truck pulled in really quickly.  A man jumped out and ran up to the door.  He asked if he was too late, I said no, and ran to the basement.  When I got back upstairs, he told me that he had spent the day dumpster diving for gifts for his teenage kids.  He had been out by sorority row and showed me this beautiful gift that he found.  What I'm sure must have come about in some holiday gift exchange---it was a beautiful present in a gift bag filled with candy, warm slipper socks, toiletries..............  He had found it by the dumpster with a note attached saying, "for someone in need."  He was so excited that his 16 year old daughter would have a Christmas present.  He asked if we had any clothes that would fit his kids and we wandered down into the basement and filled a huge garbage bag with girls clothes (after he kept looking at me and asking what she would like because we women folk are picky and strange :) )...  We walked back out to his truck and he threw his arms around me and started sobbing.  He was so thankful.

The greetings that met me today?  They were mostly pretty strange.  "Extra large."  "Do you have a hat?"  "I don't care if it doesn't fit perfectly, it's warm."  "If people didn't know that God existed... this is a miracle."  "I'm here to volunteer."  "I wore my flip flops out that you gave me a year ago, save me some for next summer please."  "The pleasure to meet me is all mine ma'm."  "Merry Christmas!"

Today, I spent most of my day talking about underwear.  But the greetings?  There was no wondering about them.  They were definitely the best part.  So to all the people that have donated their time and money?  For all the people that have stood up for our street family even when others wrote them off?  I wish you could have been here to hear the greetings of joy, wonder, and amazement.  A big thank you from one part of the family to another.