VIEW EVERYONE AS GOD’S CREATION
Presbyterian biblical scholar/ minister/author Carl Howie tells about an incident that took place in a New York subway. It was winter, and an especially cold and bitter night. Very few people were on the subway at that hour. At each station, the train would screech to a halt, open its doors, allowing a few people to come and go.
At one station, a peculiar woman got on. Her clothes were ragged and dirty. She was either extremely tired or extremely drunk. As the train lurched forward, she stumbled and fell into a seat and went fast asleep. Through the screeching and swaying of the train, she slept, her hands nestled inside two tattered worn-out gloves. It was hard to see how those gloves, full of holes, would help at all. How could she go anywhere in that bitter cold without freezing her hands? Few people in the train could take their eyes off this homeless person, asleep on the subway, her gloved hands without gloves.
Then a strange thing happened. A young Puerto Rican boy got up to get off the train as it slowed to a stop. He could have gone out the exit closest to him, but he went by the sleeping woman instead. He paused by her for a few moments, removed his gloves, laid them on her lap, and got off the train.
It is easy to judge everyone – there are enough faults to go around.
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