Saturday morning I set out to the mall with my housemates in search of items on a to-do list with no idea that God had so much more in store for us.
As we walked through Belk and into the mall everything around us seemed dim and lifeless. I observed as an older man shuffled to the seat next to me in one of the common areas and all that came to my mind was “royalty” I knew that he was a son and heir to something much greater that most of us could imagine. I observed him as he sat down to catch his breath. He was tired and seemed to be a regular around the mall as people passed by they greeted him. The bottoms of his black sneakers were worn and his hair was tousled across is forehead. He seemed lonely and sad.
I asked the Lord what I was supposed to say and I hesitated and stumbled on my words at first. I introduced myself and chose to put my phone away and talk to him a bit. He returned with a polite southern greeting and seemed to be delighted that someone was engaging him in conversation. We chatted about everything from Gainesville to California and everything in between. As we talked further he opened up about his victory over cancer and his current battle with diabetes. He walks at the mall daily with the hope of one day improving his health.
The Lord downloaded his love for Andy in my heart and in the hearts of my housemates. The love was stronger than anything I had felt in a long time. As our time to go was drawing near I asked Andy if we pray with him before we left. He happily agreed to it. When I stood up I felt I needed to tell him what the Lord had told me while sitting next to him. My eyes began to well up with tears when I realized that this man had no clue he was loved.
We gathered around him and began to pray. I looked up and Andy was starting to tear up too. He didn’t know he was loved by the Almighty One. The Creator of all was overflowing with love for him and this man didn’t even know it and he knew about Jesus in fact he goes to church faithfully every Sunday and he didn’t know he was LOVED. This seems to be a common theme (but thats another blog for another time…)
We parted ways and headed for the car and all of a sudden the mall had life in it. The atmosphere had shifted. God did something and we got to be a part of it because we were willing.
