I listened to Shane Claiborne talk today. If you have never heard of him you have missed something. He is a Christian activist who grew up in the same town I live in and has went on to start a small Christian community in inner city Philadelphia called the Simple Way. There is no way in a few words I can do justice to the kind of person he is or what he has done. Check out Shane or the Simple Way on the internet and prepared to be amazed. He takes the idea of “love your neighbor” seriously. He actually believes Peter. Paul, James and John had a good idea.
He told this story.
There was a man and woman very much in love who wanted to have a child very badly and found out they couldnt. One night walking through their town they saw a homeless lady, really almost more of a girl, that was about 6 months pregnant. They stopped to talk with her. It was a cold and rainy night. They invited her to come to their house for the night. They talked into the night and found out about the painful circumstances that had led her to this place in life. They talked further with each other and prayed. They ended up inviting the girl to stay with them and have baby.
When the baby came they were excited. They had a baby in their life. The three adults and the baby became a family. A real family. They asked the girl one night, “What do you want? You have given us a chance to be part of a child’s life. What do you want?” She wanted to go to nursing school. With a lot of encouragement she went. She became a nurse.
The lady became sick. She had M.S. and began to die. Finally she died about a year ago.
Her last days were days of love. Her husband loved her much. She had a child in her life who loved her much.
And she had a nurse who stayed with her through the worst of times who loved her very much.
A true, very true story.
