One Sunday morning my pastor shared an illustration about an older man walking along the beach after a bad storm and watching a young boy picking up and throwing one starfish at a time that had washed up onto the beach back into the ocean. The old man greeted the young boy and said, “Good morning. May I ask what it is you are doing?” The young boy went on to explain that the starfish would die if they weren’t placed back into the ocean. The old man stood there looking at the thousands of starfish on the beach and told the boy he really wasn’t going to make a big difference. The boy bent down, picked up a starfish, threw it back into the ocean, looked at the old man with a smile and said, “It made a difference for that one.”
I will often go and eat lunch at God’s Kitchen, a local soup kitchen for the homeless in Grand Rapids. I do this because it is a great place to meet the people that we serve and strive to build relationships with. Everyday around noon people from all backgrounds will start to gather in line to be ready for 12:30 when the door opens, and lunch is served. The line will start to move forward and allow everyone to get a bag which has a Styrofoam container filled with food, a plastic fork, knife, and napkin and sometimes a bottle of water or juice box. It's nothing fancy but most of the time the food is pretty good. After you grab your bag, depending on the weather, some will find a place on the sidewalk or curb to eat their lunch and talk with acquaintances.
One day after grabbing my bag of lunch I saw a young guy sitting on the curb who had been hanging around my friend Shawn some days before. I had not seen Shawn for a few days and thought I would go ask this man if he had. I went and introduced myself to him and asked if I could sit and have lunch with him. He invited me to sit and shared with me that his name was Patrick. We sat there and talked about Shawn and the last time each of us had seen him and where we thought he could possibly be. Patrick then went on to ask me how I had met Shawn and if I stayed at the mission or just on the street at night. I explained that when I met Shawn at God’s Kitchen weeks before he had just had his backpack with all his personal items stolen and he was quite distraught. I shared with Patrick that I was able to get a backpack for Shawn with a few clean clothes and hygiene items to replace the ones that had been stolen. Patrick knew about the gifted backpack and went on to share with me how much Shawn was blown away that someone who doesn’t even know him would think of him and do that specifically for him.
Patrick, after realizing that I wasn’t homeless and who I was, he looked at me and asked, “Why do you come down here and try to help when you don’t have to.” I went on to explain to him One Starfish Foundation and about our passion for helping and loving people by showing them RESPECT and DIGNITY no matter who they are or where they live and to provide them HOPE for a better future!
I go back to the story of the young boy and his daunting task of saving starfish. The problems we see with homelessness, lack of male role models, incarceration, and mental illness can be overwhelming and discouraging, but our hope and prayer is that we, just like that young boy, can look back and with a smile say, “It made a difference for that one.”
Matthew 25:40 – And the King will answer them, “Truly I say to you, as you did it to the one of the least of these, you did it to me.”
