I See Alive People

Okay, so it’s a poor take-off on the more famous, “I see dead people” line. But I’m sitting here, drinking coffee at the local coffee shop located across from the burrito shop inside the large chain grocery store.

And I’m seeing living, breathing people.

Sounds stupid, right? You see these people everyday.

But for some reason, today I’m really seeing them. I’m remembering parts of their life stories. I’m asking questions and finding how really interested I am in them. It makes me recall a line I heard when we were interviewing a man to be our community minister.

He stood nervously in front of us. His short sleeve shirt didn’t hide the mostly completed tattoo of a women’s face on his forearm. This had been a dinner occasion. But he hadn’t eaten.

Joe started his story. He told of his birth and birthright as a heir to the Mexican Mafia. He talked about money and drugs . . . and prison. But as his life unfolded in front of us, his momentum grew. The words came more forcefully. He was energized by the fact that God had found him while in prison.

And Jesus had opened his

Joe told us. “Everywhere I look I see souls.”

He sees alive people. Today, I am, too. I hope it’s not a passing quirk of nature.