A homeless dream

I was out doing my shopping. I feel ill-dressed when out in Harrogate so I was a little surprised to see a homeless bloke on the pavement. Was he trying to sleep? Could he sleep and dream as I do?

Just sitting there with his sleeping-bag keeping his legs warm.

Just sitting. Not begging. Just sitting, staring into space. Maybe daydreaming.

What are his dreams? What does he want in life?

Perhaps just a warm place with simple home-made food - the type of food that's cooked with love.

He looked tired. I mean real tired. The bags on his eyes had bags on them.

I walked past him six or seven times and my heart...

...it just broke as I imagined that I was in his place.

How on earth do you dream of a brighter future when the world is walking past you, not even daring to make eye contact with you?

This question filled my head and spun around till I had to walk past again just so I could give the man a friendly smile.

So I walked. And I smiled. In return I saw the purest smile in the whole town.

I began to dream that this guy would find God's love - That he would find it in our smiles and in our generosity. That he would find it in our actions and our attitude as we stop to say 'what can I do for you?'

God had dreams for me and they are my reality now - some of them anyway. I want to follow God's example to see His dreams come true for all of us who sometimes find it hard to dream because life gives us hard knocks - today's hard knock may lead to opportunity knocking tomorrow.

May you be blessed by dreaming for those who cannot dream.