Don’t know what to buy for the homeless?
How about a gift card from Macy’s?
Kidding. But think about it - Jesus was homeless. No room in the inn and all of that. The trip to Egypt wasn’t any better - and when they got there, I’m pretty sure they were homeless - I doubt they could get emergency assistance from the Jewish Exile Relief Fund. Oh yeah. That’s right, in the case of the homelessness of Jesus, it was all to fulfill a prophecy. It wasn’t as if he was some loser living on the street, some immigrant looking for a home.
For the homeless, the disadvantaged, the marginalized, the mentally ill - Christmas comes and goes - it really isn’t a “hassle” for them at all - because for them, it’s not about what to buy, shopping, entertaining, or what to wear, and so on - it is about staying alive.
[Photo: The homeless woman of Norwich.]
December 13th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Now there’s a thought!
December 13th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Exactly, Terry!
December 16th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Jesus was not homeless, he had a home in Nazareth. His parents, responding to a Roman bureaucracy did not have a hotel after they traveled across half way across Israel.
Big difference between being homeless, which implies living on the street, and not having a hotel room in the midst of a cross country 70 mile trip.
December 16th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Daniel - you are correct of course - he wasn’t really homeless - he simply had no place to stay. The hassle free trip to Egypt probably wasn’t that bad, Middle Eastern hospitality being what it was.
However, later on, Jesus once mentioned to someone, “Foxes have lairs, birds of the air have nests…but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” I’m sure he just meant he had no place to stay.
I see the big difference now. I didn’t mean to be so insensitive to homeless people by suggesting that Christ may have shared their suffering and understood their poverty.
Merry Christmas!