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NO SHOES

He appeared to be very nervous as he walked through the large wooden
church doors. His head was lowered and his eyes looked directly at the
tile floor as he walked very slowly toward the far back pew, away from
the rest of the congregation.

The preacher immediately ceased talking and slowly lowered his arms,
which he had been flinging about during the course of the sermon. He
shifted his eyes towards the young man as he accidentally slid the heavy
wooden church bench while trying to quietly sit down.

The deacons and choirmaster began to whisper among themselves as several
of the other members of the church began to turn around and look at the
unshaven figure. I had noticed when he walked into the church that he
was very thin, dirty and that he was not wearing any shoes, and that he
looked awfully hungry.

He constantly smiled at all the little children from the orphanage, when
we would turn around to look at him. But then the matron slapped me on
the leg because I dropped the nickel onto the wooden bench, which the
orphanage had given me to put into the collection plate. So I did not
turn around and look at him any more.

I always liked the money collection part of the church service best
because I knew that it was almost over and we would get to go home soon.

The preacher started talking, on and on about how people should dress up
for church and that they should cut their hair and be clean before
coming to services. I knew that he was talking about the man in the back
of the church because he had long hair and he was not very clean
looking. But the man just sat there. He smiled and never said a word. He
just sat there raising his hands towards the church ceiling and saying
out loud "Praise the Father in Heaven", real loud like.

The older church people would look at him like he was crazy or
something, but he sure didn't look crazy to me.

The preacher finally walked off the platform and whispered something
into the deacon's ear. The deacon got up from his chair and walked down
the side isle, next to the pretty colored glass windows, and he asked
the man to leave because he was disrupting the church service. The young
man just looked up at the deacon and smiled. Without saying a word he
rose to his feet, turned and walked toward the two large wooden doors
leading out of the church.

As he reached the doors he once again stopped, turned around and smiled
at everyone. He reached over and picked up the entire stack of "The
Upper Room" pamphlets, which were always sitting on the table by the
entrance and he gently turned them face down and then he walked out the
large wooden doors.

I will never forget the kindness I saw in that man's smile. A man with a
very kind face having to leave the church that Sunday morning because of
the way he was dressed and not clean shaven.

I never saw that man in church again after that, I don't think. But he
sure looked an awful lot like the man who was in the shinny pictures in
the middle of my bible.

Stories from The Life and Times of Roger Dean Kiser:

Click on Roger's name to visit his website. Roger Dean Kiser

To write to Roger please click on his name. Roger Dean Kiser

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