Bread on an Island

In Greenville County the concrete islands strategically placed by the Department of Transportation often serve as a base from which men and sometimes women beg for money.  They hold signs with messages that are meant to tug at our hearts and hand out dollars  in response to their words: I'm homeless, I'm hungry, I'm a veteran.  In the past their message sometimes read I need work...but I no longer see that one as frequently.

How do we know if they are telling the truth? Certainly, none of us would fail to feed a hungry person. Our emotions tug at our hearts remembering the words of Christ: I was hungry and you did not feed me...and so, how do we distinguish the con artist beggar from someone who is really in need? We cannot. What can we do? We can pray that the beggar receive the provisions he or she needs and that the Holy Spirit move in this person to help them see whatever it was that drove them to this point in life. Then we can financially  support our churches, food pantries, and rescue missions, the experts in knowing the real faces of the homeless and hungry.

But just in case, we can do what one passerby did: leave a loaf of bread on the island where a honest to goodness hungry and homeless person can claim it. That's what someone did. At first, when I saw this loaf of bread on the concrete island, I thought it had fallen out of someone's grocery bag; but as I sat there and snapped this photo, I began to laugh and thank God for whoever did this. They gave someone an entire loaf of bread--and not a cheap one either! Check out the label.