More from Judy Ann Eichstedt

Alabama was a man in his sixties who lived on the streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He needed a haircut, a shave and without a doubt a hot bath. He wore glasses that had tape holding them together and shoes without socks. It was cold outside, yet he had no coat — only a thin blanket he wore over his shoulders. His clothes did not fit at all, and the smell of beer as I came near to him was. He sat on the ground and asked people for money as they walked into the store. As I watched people pass him by as if he were invisible, my heart went out to him. Only three years earlier, my family and I were homeless and living in our car. The sadness I saw in Alabama’s face reminded me of my own sadness as well as the feeling of being all alone. My feelings of rejection and being forgotten rushed in like a flood, ready to drown me. In a moment’s time I relived hunting for food in garbage cans and going from place to place with nowhere to call home. As I sat down on the ground next to him he looked up, and I told him “God loves you, and so do I.” He began to cry, and I gave him a hug.

After three years Alabama decided to go home, and he left Oklahoma by bus. He was dressed in new clothes and shoes with socks. He was clean-shaven and his grey hair was cut short. He looked totally different from when I met him. As he climbed on the bus the last thing he said to me was. “God loves you, and so do I.”  I never saw him again, but I think about him often. He helped me to understand a question I must have asked a million times when I was homeless, “Why did this happen? Why me?” I wanted to know. “Did I do something wrong and am being punished with poverty?”

However if I had never experienced homelessness firsthand and had come across Alabama, would I have passed him by, telling myself it’s not my responsibility? Perhaps I would have ignored him and just gone on with my life. I now believe Jesus opened up in me the ability to reach out and love other people. Christ woke up the love inside me that we all have within us. My own experience being homeless afforded me the opptunity to realize the great power of love. I learned how love was able to change lives and give people hope. Love lifts human beings up no matter how deep the pit may be. I witnessed the transformation in my own life when people reached out to love me. Love will turn people’s lives around for the better. So I say to all who read this, “Love one another as Jesus loves us.”