When I was a kid, I remember this one guy always hanging around the church I grew up in. He was always seemed a little off – his clothes were a mess and he sounded confused. I never actually saw him in church, but he was usually waiting out there after everyone got out of service. I never knew if he was waiting for someone, or asking for money, or what. I recall people saying he was a lunatic, or someone that turned away from God, and one thing I did know was that you do not talk to him. He would try and talk to people in the church but no one acknowledged him more than a polite hello or simple get out of here.
One day, I walked out of church and saw my mom talking to him. She was laughing with him and I was confused because I thought no one was supposed to talk to this guy. And then each week she saw him, she’d say hello and ask how he is. Another Sunday while we were having a dinner fellowship at the church, my mom brought out a plate of food for him. And I heard my friends and their parents say, “what is your mom doing talking to that guy?” I got embarrassed and actually felt some resentment towards my mom for talking to this crazy guy. How could she do this to me? It felt like everyone around was talking about this crazy guy and how you don’t talk to him. You just walk by him.
The other week I got the privilege to visit a few different elderly homes in Ho Cho Minh City. I could never put into words what I saw at some of these places. I saw some women who were reduced to literal skin and bones and diapers and it was all I could do to keep my composure. We were going room to room, singing worship songs, sitting with the elderly women, and loving on them by simply being there. It was such a sweet time and all the women loved having the Americans there.
When we got into the third room to sing, I sat with a woman on one side of the room but quickly my eyes met another woman laying there, with her eyes shut. I later found out her name is Maria. I couldn’t stop looking at her because I’d never seen something like that before. She was completely covered from head to toe with hundreds upon hundreds of tumor-looking bumps. It looked awful, painful, and possibly contagious. Every other elderly woman in that room had a Racer sitting with them, holding their hand, except for this Maria. None of the workers would look at her or talk to her, but just walked by. Most of the team else had already moved on to the next room, and the woman in the bed next to her told us we shouldn’t touch her. I kept staring. I wanted to sit and touch her and love on her, but I was scared because what if what she has is contagious? What if everyone is right and we should just pass her by?
I kept going back and forth and as I was leaving the room to move on, I felt Holy Spirit ask me, Stacy, where in this room would Jesus be sitting right now if He were here in the flesh? Without a doubt, it was on the bed of this woman with the ugliest skin disease I’ve ever seen.
I grabbed a translator and sat with Maria for a long time, while Emily and I held her hands. She shared some of her story; that the disease has made her blind, and she’s been in constant pain and itchiness for the last 40 years, when this disease appeared. Her parents died a long time ago, and because of how she looks, she doesn’t have any friends. No visitors, ever. I can’t imagine that kind of loneliness.
When we told her there is a God who calls her His daughter; a Father who loves her and hasn’t abandoned her, she cried. She cried because every visitor passes her by. We prayed for Maria, her heart, and for God to heal her and restore her sight. I know I’ll never see her again, but I can’t forget how the Father loved on her in that room this day. In that closed country, it was a Kingdom-coming-to-Earth moment and I’m humbled to have witnessed it.
I honestly haven’t thought about that guy in my church since I was probably 10 or 11 years old. But since the Lord so gently asked me that simple question in the elderly home, I realized my mom was doing exactly that with him. It wasn’t the popular thing to do and it was most definitely looked down on, just as it was looked down on that I was touching this tumor-covered woman. But with those abandoned, diseased, and lonely is exactly where the Savior sits. They are not forgotten by Him. Though we pass them by, He never does.
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