Shuffling

October 4, 2019

He shuffled up the sidewalk, slowly making his way to the corner where he would stop, wait for the light before continuing on his journey to who knows where. With shaggy grey hair sticking out in all directions and a scraggly beard on his chin, his demeanor was matched by his appearance as he made his way along, dressed in outsized jeans, a dirty wrinkled shirt, and worn sneakers. 

I wondered where he was heading, but even more, where he had been. He looked perhaps to be in his early sixties, but might have been quite a bit younger. Hard roads take their toll on a body. Once upon a time, he was a tiny baby cradled in a mother’s arms. He played as children do, chasing a friend in a game of tag, pretending to be a hero, laughing a child’s laugh, crying over a skinned knee. I wonder—Did he ever know his father? Did he have a grandmother who told him stories, spoiling him when he visited? Did he ever know love? Was there someone waiting for him at the end of his day’s trek?

Our city streets are populated by these invisible people who make their way through alleys and across boulevards on their way to a future without any future. At times, they congregate together, talking and smoking, perhaps passing a bottle before once more shuffling off alone to nowhere in particular. It’s easy for those of us who were blessed with family, whose lives are filled and even overfilled with people we love and who love us, to forget that not everyone has been dealt a winning hand in life. Sure, some cheat their way through the game, some bluff and bluster, and some are just plain lucky. But there are those too, who simply play to the best of their ability the hand they were dealt. Their chips are almost gone, they’re not holding anything of value, but they refuse to fold.

It’s likely I’ll never see him again. I don’t know his name nor his story. But a story he does have, as have I. Tonight I am grateful for the people who populate my story, for parents who not only loved me, but taught and corrected me; for a pastor and Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, friends, and a wife who has made me a better man, husband, and father than I would otherwise be. I have been given much, enabling me to walk with purpose to a goal set before me by God himself, for which I am thankful tonight.