Wendell's 4th Birthday

       It was a normal morning at River of Life (the homeless feeding program we work with) and just as we were closing up for the morning we had three people walk in at the end. It was a father with his two children. The children were clearly excited as they came in, the father looking relieved. As they sat down at the table with their cereal and juice I walked over to greet them because I had never seen them come in before. I found out the boys name was Wendell, named after his father and the girls name was Miley. Today just so happened to be Wendell's 4th birthday, hence all the excitement I had noticed with their arrival. As I talked to the father he began to explain their situation, that they had all been homeless for the past couple of years and have just recently been able to move into an apartment about two bus rides away. Today for Wendell's birthday his father used his bus pass to get the kids into town so they could get a meal from the shelter and hopefully make it to the beach for Wendell's birthday. I asked the father if Wendell would be having cake for his birthday and saddened he told me they had absolutely no money for that. So at that point it became my own personal mission to go and find Wendell a cake in the next 10 minutes for his birthday. I went outside and River of Life just had a whole new shipment come in, with a full box of individually sliced pieces of Chocolate Fudge Cake. I grabbed three pieces for Wendell, Miley and his father and then searched the kitchen for 4 birthday candles. As I came back into the room holding a giant piece of fudge cake with 4 birthday candles Wendell's face immediately lit up the room. We lit the candles which he blew out before the birthday song was even finished and began to devour his chocolate cake. Laughing with more cake all over himself than in his mouth we were able to give Wendell a birthday. His birthday only lasted less than 10 minutes but it was the best birthday I've ever been to. At the end, his father with tears in his eyes gave me a hug and said "Thank you. I know no one else today would have done that for him." 

      The irony of the entire thing is that this whole story has nothing to do with me. At a birthday party that lasted 10 minutes for a little boy I had just met, I was able to see Jesus. His heart is with the poor, the people that don't have it all together. He is with a single father doing everything he can to provide for his two children and He lavishes his love through chocolate cake. I know that Jesus loves everyone, but I believe he has a special place in his heart for the poor. It's because Jesus becomes the most evident to me whenever I am with them, serving them, and loving them. I know Wendell will eventually forget about the chocolate cake he had on his 4th birthday, but I know I won't because that was the first birthday party that I knew Jesus was celebrating with us. 

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me...Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[a] you did it to me".

-Jesus