Through the Grace of God we find what Life means to the Poor in our community.

Through the Wonderment of God we find what Life means to the Poor!

There is more teaching in the bible regarding the poor than anything else.  It takes reading between the lines in many instances to get the thrust of God’s intent.   People were told to leave any fruit that had fallen from the trees for the poor and destitute. 

“Happy those whose help is Jacob’s God, whose help is in the Lord, their God.  The maker of heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them, Who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry.”  (Ps 146: 5 - 7).  

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.”  (Lk 6: 20).  “Listen, my beloved brothers.  Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?”  (Jas 2: 5).

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,  for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  (Mt 5: 3).

It is no mystery that the poor were the first to hear the angels’ proclamation of the birth of a Messiah, and Lord.  (Lk 2: 10).

Understanding what poor really means to us can be found in the theme of an empty heart or the feelings of loneliness.  As I have written before, there are too many poor people through broken hearts or an empty spirit that can only be filled with a tender touch.  If a close friend or a loving spouse cannot solve the problem of emptiness, the reality of God’s doing this may not get through.  After all, the only way God would have been able to reach man so he would understand, was to become man himself.  It is through the physical entity of flesh and blood that man relates to one like himself.  

Realizing this scenario we then must turn to Jesus Christ, God taking on humanity with flesh and blood, and know it is through this humanness of God himself filling within our lonely hearts a touch of understanding.  Do we feel sadness?  So does God.  Will we weep at the loss of someone or something?  Christ did that.  (the death of Lazarus and the entering into Jerusalem).  When we feel pain; when will God emulate that?  On the Cross, Jesus felt pain and died as we will also.

Bringing our empty hearts and drooping spirits before God, is when we reach out to another human being, who in the very essence of God is receiving through one another the solace of Almighty God, who is within and around us as Man and God.

“Blessed are those who are Poor in Spirit;  For theirs is the kingdom of God!”  (Mt 5: 3).

Ralph B.Hathaway