I suppose ever town has one, the old man, not quite on this planet – perhaps in an alternate universe all his own.
George was one such character. A drunk whom could be found sleeping last night’s binge with wood alcohol off in a doorway or commercial dumpster on any given night. I tried talking with him a few times but honestly, I am not sure he any longer had brain function left. Of course I am wrong, but by all appearances he was in a world of his own.
George disappeared for most of a year, I guessed he finally had gone to the dump in one of those containers he slept in! When he reappeared, he was very much a changed man. His clothes were cleaner, he often was shaved and now he had a bicycle to zoom around the sidewalks on. We all thought some woman must have gotten a hold of him.
Charles was another older man of the village. I can tell you almost nothing about him, he kept to himself and by all accounts – no one knew anything about him! He lived a quiet life and then he died. When his estate was probated, he had left everything to George!
Apparently, Charles had decided to befriend, dry out, clean up and give George a life. From what we were to learn, this had been a decade long work for him to accomplish. What a gift of he had given George! But, that was not all – Charles unknown to anyone, was the wealthiest man in the area. George was now a multi-millionaire.
An awful lot of jaws hit the streets when that news blew through the town! Who would have thought this of Charles? And why George? We all wondered…
I remember thinking at the time, “Poor George – he will be preyed upon by every leech within a 1,000 miles!”
But, then again, remember George had no ability to deal with people and so his new found wealth was safe. How very odd!
Now if you or I were to have such a gift dropped in our laps, I imagine our lives would change dramatically! But, not George. The only visible of sign of money was he bought a horn for his bicycle and now lived in a small house outside of town. I marveled at this restraint.
And George decided he needed a job, so he took part of his land and made it into a tree farm. And another part he put a small trailer on and sold trees during the Christmas season. He was very happy and would share his love for Jesus with all whom came. When he grew too old to even do this, he sold most of the land and used the money to build a very nice playground for the town’s children, where his tree lot had been.
Now George is gone. He left behind a legacy probably not to be remembered by many, save for those whom had been like him and he had reached out to, the children whom play every sunny day in his park and those of us whom marvel at God’s working in this man’s life.
I guess what we can all learn from Charles and George is that no matter how debased a person may become – they are still God’s child and need to be reached out to…..
