Shelter News 18

“We love because He first loved us” was seen this week at the Phinney Ridge Winter Men’s Shelter.

It showed itself Wednesday when one man said, “We should do hamburgers on Friday night. Is there anything else planned for Friday?”

“Friday is Good Friday. There is a lot going on the building.” I said. “But there is no one scheduled to come in and serve dinner that night.”

“Good. I’ll bring in some hamburgers, and some lettuce and tomatoes.  And some buns.  And a couple of onions,” he said.

“Great. We’ve got mayo, and ketchup, and mustard. It’ll be good.” I said. “Bring it in the day before so I can get it cookin’.”

And so he did. And so we had a Good Friday hamburger feed at the Phinney Ridge Winter Men’s Shelter. Grilled six at a time in the oven and served sizzling on to their prepared buns. Twenty four hamburgers gone as fast as I could cook them. It was over in a matter of minutes.

What I liked the most about the meal is that it was provided by one of the men who has been with us most of the year and he was simply showing his gratitude in a real way. He felt loved and so he showed love. That is the way it is.

After the hamburgers we had strawberry shortcake with whipped cream again. (It’s strawberry season in case you haven’t noticed.) And then someone asked the old question, “Why do they call it Good Friday? It wasn’t very good for Jesus.”

“No,” I answered. “It wasn’t very good for Jesus, but it was very good for us. He paid the price for our sin.”

Ben Paul 4-5-2015