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 "Miracle Behind The Berlin Wall" in
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GOD'S CHRISTMAS GIFT
TO A FORGOTTEN MAN
by Michael Furchert Sometimes He wants you to be one
As published in UP
The Magazine of Hope & Encouragement |
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Peace of God Remains
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It was midnight in downtown Berlin. As I left the train station a shadowy figure stepped into my path begging for money. His filthy hair had grown long over his shoulders. His worn out jacket was stained and torn apart. Beneath an old hat was a bearded face with glassy and weary eyes. I did not have much to give him to ease his pain, so I left him behind in a hurry.
Then I stopped. Didn't Christ say “Remember, what you have done to one of the least of these, you have done unto me.”? Would this man spend the Christmas season celebrating the birth of a Savior or would he feel forsaken and alone on the freezing cold streets with no place to go?
Had God not spoken into this hurting world to save what was lost? Didn’t Christ also come for this homeless man?
I turned around and walked back to him. His eyes still looked the same. Hopeless and empty. But my eyes had suddenly changed. I looked into the face of a person God loved and cared for. Maybe I looked into the face of Christ. “If you are hungry and you need a place to stay, come on, I'll take you to my apartment," I said. When we got there I cooked him a meal and shared with him a little bit of what Christmas was all about.
"Don't you tell me anything about this Christ. There is no God!” he said with bitterness. Nothing I said could change that he lived on the streets, seemingly lost and forgotten. All I could do was to point him to the One, who, in the middle of his despair, could still give him hope and change his life.
His eyes flashed anger. Then he pulled out a gun and put it on the table.
“There is no God, do you hear me! There is only pain and misery. Don't talk about God again!” I was taken aback and silently prayed for strength. All I had to offer him was the message of Christ. Only God could make a difference in his broken heart.
I took courage and pointed to the painting of Christ over my study desk. It had once belonged to my grandfather. He had not taken it down when the Nazis of Hitler Germany demanded so, nor when the Communists demanded it. After he had died, the painting was passed on to me as his legacy.
“Jesus loves you” I told my late night guest.
Tears filled his eyes as he put away his gun. “This day was meant to be the last day of my life,” he sobbed. “I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had given myself a time limit; until midnight, if nobody would stop to help me, I would go ahead and end my life.”
He had stood at the subway station all night long, but nobody stopped. “Then it turned midnight,” he said “And I knew my life was over. There was nothing to hope for. It would never be different. I saw you come out of the station. It was twelve sharp and I thought you would be the last person I would ask. If you would turn away, too, I would end my life.”
"I asked you for help and you walked away,“ he said with tears in his eyes. “ My last hope had gone. But then you turned around and came back to me! And I don‘t know why. Maybe there is a God. Maybe he sent you into my shattered life. If you would not have turned around, I would not be alive anymore!" And so it became Christmas in the heart of this man who had felt so lost and forgotten. God still cared about him, still loved him. He had reached down from Heaven to save his life and touch his soul. It became Christmas in my heart, too, as I watched the tears run down this man's eyes, as I saw how Christ comes into the middle of our broken world to change our lives and make us new again. May the message of Christmas once again fill our hearts with joy and gratefulness during this wonderful season of God's saving love and grace. © Michael Furchert
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