Dwayne

by Anita Mondragon
 

The other day, our family was on our way to the grocery store.  We had no sooner turned the corner, and Mike and I saw a man sprawled out on the grass, his cane lying beside him.  Mike stopped, I jumped out and ran over to the man.  I thought he was dead!  He didn’t twitch a muscle as I approached him.  “Sir…Sir! …Can you hear me?”  Nothing.  I didn’t know if I should touch him, move him, check his pulse…or just leave him alone.

He must have been lying there for a while, because bugs from the grass were crawling all over him.  He was so ‘out of it’… he didn’t even try to brush them off.  Finally, in a louder voice, I called out to him again.  “Sir! …Are you ok?”  This time, he opened his eyes, groaned, and said,  No.”  “Are you hurting?”  I inquired.  “Yes.  I have pain in my arm and my side.” he replied.

We had forgotten our cell phone at home, and had no way to call 911 without one of us leaving and going back home to get it.  Just as we were about to do that, a car drove up behind our truck.  They had no choice but to stop for we were blocking the street.  I ran to them and asked if they had a cell phone.  They did, thank the Lord, and called 911 for us.

The man on the grass and I talked.  I got his name and age.  The first thing he asked me was this: “Am I in trouble?  I did have a drink…but I’m not an alcoholic and I don’t do drugs!”  I assured him he was not in any trouble, and that I was only there to help him.

He said he hadn’t eaten in eleven days.  “Why?” I asked.  Then, he began to pour his heart out to me.  “I’m de-pleated…no one cares about me!” he sobbed.  I said, “Dwayne!  You do know that Jesus cares about you…He loves you! … You do know that…right?”  He kind of chuckled and started to quote scripture to me; Matthew 28, Romans 6:23.  I said, “Oh…so you DO KNOW that Jesus loves you…huh?”  “Yes…I know…but I feel so alone…don’t leave me…” he said pleadingly.  I assured him, “I’m going to stay right here until the ambulance comes…I’m not going anywhere.”

I was shocked at his first response to me!  I mean…there he was, lying on the grass, hurt, and totally helpless…unable to help himself, and I had stopped to help him, yet…he was afraid he was in trouble!  However, the more I thought about it, it dawned on me that this is how we are with God.  We’ve fallen.  We’re helpless and hurt and can do nothing to help ourselves.  We’re infested with the sins of this life; they crawl all over us, and most of the time, we are in such despair, we don’t even try to brush them away.  Then Jesus comes walking by.  He calls out to us…”Can you hear me?  Are you hurting?”  And our first response to His attempted rescue is…”Am I in trouble?  I do have a ‘few’ sins…but I’m not really all that bad!”  Instead of admitting to Him that we are de-pleated, and we feel unloved, alone, and uncared for…we still try to do it by ourselves.  HOW FOOLISH!  Especially for those of us that know what the Bible says!

Those two ladies that drove up behind us, were like God The Father, and The Holy Spirit.  They were there…in the nick of time and brought the help Dwayne needed!

If you already KNOW Jesus…or if you haven’t yet met Him in a personal way…Just remember this:  WE ARE NEVER ALONE…JESUS NEVER LEAVES US…HE’S WITH US ALWAYS.  HE’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE…HE CAME TO HELP US…TO SAVE OF FROM OUR SINS.  If you will just open your heart…He wants to come in and help you.  He loves you…of that…you can be sure!


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