Monday afternoon and I’m coming out of Target with my groceries. Yes, my friends, I shop at Target because those big grocery stores give me the willies.
Anyway, I don’t get much for myself. Some milk. Some peaches. Shampoo. The occasional stuffed animal that I give to my 3-year-old granddaughter.
I’m steering the shopping cart toward my car when I hear, behind me, the familiar call:
“Got any change?”
Fortunately, I didn’t make eye contact and he’s behind me, so I can pretend I didn’t hear and keep going on. Which I do.
But the man is persistent. As I open the hatch of my car, he comes up to me. He’s long and thin and covered with a slight film of dust. He has dark ragged hair and a scraggly beard, yet he’s a young man. Dressed in a torn shirt and jeans. Very blue eyes.
“Got any change?” he asks again, softly, not aggressively. A slight plea in his voice.
“Sorry, man, all I got is an ATM card. Don’t suppose you have one of those card readers.”
He shrugs. “Nope, guess not,” he says.
He takes this with such good grace that I stop for a minute. I have a little change pocket in the door of my car.
“Okay,” I say, “I think I might have some change after all.”
I dig out a few quarters.
“Thank you,” he says. “You know, Jesus would bless you.”
“I am a Catholic,” I say.
“Can I have a name?” he says.
I stop myself from asking whether he needs it for his mailing list.
“Mark,” I say. He shakes my hand.
“Joseph Smith,” he says, “but I’m not a Mormon. I went to a Mormon church one time but I didn’t much like it.”
(For those of you who are confused, Joseph Smith is the founder of the Latter Day Saints.)
I am putting groceries in my car. I pull a peach out to eat on the way home. I pull out a second one.
“Want a peach?” I ask.
“Sure,” he says. “Thanks.”
“I gotta be going,” I say, wondering why he hasn’t wandered to ask for more change.
“Drive careful,” he says. “And thanks. You know what Jesus said, right?”
“Jesus?”
“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto Me.”
He waves as I drive off. It isn’t till I’m a mile down the road that I realize that this guy looked a lot like the depictions of Christ.
I feel like I’ve been tested. And I sort of did okay.
Whatsoever you do, my friends. Remember this the next time you’re asked for change.
Mark Bruce, Writer 
What a wonderful story! I too have been accosted in parking lots by people who look very needy. I carry cash and, after questioning them about their situation, give them change. I also pray to God that the money I’ve given will set them on a better path in life. Then I leave it to God.
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God seems to know what He’s doing.
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