Whatever you did for the least of these...

...I'm pretty sure most (both?) of you who read this will know how that particular Biblical reference ends. Tonight I had a weird experience. To make some sense of it I need to go back a few days.

Like many others (Kirsty, Liz, Matt, to name but three of those who've blogged a bit about it) I was at The Main Event this past weekend. One of the things that struck me was when the speaker in the Youth Venue, Paul Flavel (or was it a young Alan Hansen?) quoted the above Bible verse (a quick bit of research tells me it's from Matthew 25:40).

It didn't really strike me at the time but it came back to me this evening. See, about 6.55 tonight there was a knock on the door. So I went to open it as you would, to be confronted by a woman in her late 50s/early 60s, in slippers, seriously out of breath, and sporting the after-effects of a nasty cut on her nose.

Before I could say anything like ask who she was and what the heck she thought she was doing darkening my (already very dark) doorstep at that time she asked if I could call her a cab. This threw me a little and immediately I started wondering if this was some elaborate plan to burgle me (you'd be amazed the speed with which my mind runs to this kind of conclusion) by distracting me for long enough for someone to sneak in through the unlocked back door and make away with all my worldly goods... without my noticing of course. Anyway, she asked me to call a cab so I said I didn't know any numbers of cab firms and could she provide me with any. She was clearly distressed (apart from the obvious shortage of breath) and went rifling through her bag and mumbling some phone numbers, two of which she said were her daughter's home phone number, both of which were wrong, and eventually we managed to get a cab firm number from her mobile.

So I called for the cab, all the while suspicious as to this lady's motives, and when he said he'd be there in 15 minutes I decided to invite her in. She'd already requested a glass of water to take some medication and I asked if I could get her anything else so she and I had a cup of tea.

It was such a surreal experience but throughout it all I couldn't help but go over the words of the above verse. Because, when everything within me was screaming that I should not be letting this potential (albeit very wheezy) axe-murdering villain into my house, there I was drinking tea with her.

She told me that she'd been at the hospital just down the road but the cab she'd ordered for there had never turned up so she'd started walking up the hill and that was why she was so out of breath. She said she'd been at the hospital for an asthma appointment but hadn't got her inhaler with her. She told me she suffered wih MS and had had a stroke recently which affected her hands and various other things, which had led to her falling and suffering the pretty nasty cut on her nose. I've no idea if any or all of these were true but I couldn't help but go over and over and over the words of this verse.

So, for 20 of the most surreal minutes of my entire life, this evening I invited a stranger into my house and had tea with her while we waited for the cab to arrive. I'm still not entirely sure the whole thing didn't happen in some sort of dream...

...but it just felt like the right thing to do. I had absolutely nothing to gain, my fear and insecurity about strangers and dark nights (even wheezy old ladies with poor memory wearing fluffy slippers) was screaming to me that I had everything to lose, but I did it. I'm not after any kind of plaudits, congratulations, anything. I just thought you might be interested to know... both of you.

Weird, huh?