I am here though, setting up for Saturday chiropractor treatments. My employer is a generous man and an early bird. Surfs at dawn and comes into the office to treat ten or so patients. All before noon. Before anyone is in yet, I hear a soft murmuring coming from the sealed off door outside our employee kitchen in the back. There is a small crevice between brick walls, and often times a homeless man can be seen behind there sleeping.
This particular one was awake though. I heard his voice from the other side.
In the name of our benevolent God, please protect her. Save her. Heal her. She is precious, a child of yours, Jesus. Like my beloved daughter, care for them. Watch over them....
It was the love in his voice that moved me. I stood by the sealed off door, with my ear pressed to the wall listening. His prayers grew in intensity, colorful with raw and powerful emotion. I peaked through the blinds and saw him kneeling with his hands pressed together, his eyes closed. Underneath him was a dirty sleeping bag, and a worn down suitcase sat idly next to him. The bridge and park where this clinic was located was not the best part of town. Riddled with drug addicts, most of them homeless, walking up and down the bridge talking to themselves, filthy without means of cleaning up and faces riddled with sores and sunken eyes. What else would you do with no prospects? No warm bed, no shower, no consistent meals... no family... or the one you had drove you to the streets in the first place.
And here now, the man between the walls, despite the difficulty and hopelessness in his situation sat in prayer so early in the day. Eyes closed, believing. Eyes closed, rejoicing.
Thanking the creator, for what little he had. He moved me. Moved the morning. Prayer is contagious, gratitude is medicine. It filled my day with hymn and giving. Next time I see that man, I want to look into his eyes and acknowledge the kindness in him. The faith he bears is more strong than the rest of us who sleep clean and warm in our beds at night.
That man in prayer between two walls.