Story of Daniel

An Anonymous Story called "Daniel's Gloves"
(Author Unknown... or is it? Please, read on.)


I sat with two friends in the picture window
of a quaint restaurant just off the corner of
the town square. The food and the company
were both especially good that day.

As we talked, my attention was drawn outside,
across the street. There, walking into town,
was a man who appeared to be carrying all his
worldly goods on his back. He was carrying a
well-worn sign that read, 'I will work for food.'
My heart sank.

I brought him to the attention of my friends and
noticed that others around us had stopped eating
to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of
sadness and disbelief.

We continued eating but the man's image lingered
in my mind. We finished our meal and went our
separate ways. I had errands to do and quickly set
out to accomplish them. I glanced toward the town
square, looking somewhat half-heartedly for the
strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing
him again would call for some response. I drove
through town and saw nothing of him. I made
some purchases at a store and got back in my car.

Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking
to me: "Don't go back to the office until you've at
least driven once more around the square..."

With some hesitancy I headed back into town.
As I turned the square's third corner, I saw him.
He was standing on the steps of the store-front
church, going through his sack.

I stopped and looked... feeling both compelled
to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on. The
empty parking space on the corner seemed to
be a sign from God: an invitation to park. I
pulled in, got out and approached the town's
newest visitor.

"Looking for the pastor?" I asked....

"Not really," he replied, "just resting."

"Have you eaten today?"

"Oh, I ate something early this morning."

"Would you like to have lunch with me?"

"Do you have some work I could do for you?"

"No work," I replied "I commute here to
work from the city, but I would like to
take you to lunch."

"Sure," he replied with a smile.

As he began to gather his things, I asked some
surface questions. "Where you headed?"

"St. Louis"

"Where you from?"

"Oh, all over; mostly Florida ...."

"How long you been walking?"

"Fourteen years," came the reply.

I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat
across from each other in the same restaurant
I had left earlier. His face was weathered
slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were
dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence
and articulation that was startling. He removed
his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that
said, 'Jesus is The Never Ending Story.'

Then Daniel's story began to unfold... He had seen
rough times early in life. He'd made some wrong
choices and reaped the consequences... Fourteen
years earlier, while backpacking across the country,
he had stopped on the beach in Daytona. He tried
to hire on with some men who were putting up a
large tent and some equipment.. A concert, he
thought.

He was hired, but the tent would not house
a concert but revival services, and in those
services he saw life more clearly... He gave
his life over to God.

"Nothing's been the same since," he said, "I
felt the Lord telling me to keep walking and
so I did, some 14 years now."

"Ever think of stopping?" I asked.

"Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the
best of me. But God has given me this calling.
I give out Bibles. That's what's in my sack... I
work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them
out when His Spirit leads.."

I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not
homeless... He was on a mission and lived
this way by choice. The question burned
inside for a moment and then I asked:
"What's it like?"

"What?"

"To walk into a town carrying all your things
on your back and to show your sign?"

"Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would
stare and make comments. Once someone
tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made
a gesture that certainly didn't make me feel
welcome. But then it became humbling to
realize that God was using me to touch lives
and change people's concepts of other folks
like me."

My concept was changing, too. We finished
our dessert and gathered his things. Just
outside the door, he paused. He turned to
me and said, 'Come Ye blessed of my Father
and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for
you... For when I was hungry you gave me
food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink,
a stranger and you took me in.'

I felt as if we were on holy ground. "Could
you use another Bible?" I asked.

He said he preferred a certain translation. It
traveled well and was not too heavy. It was
also his personal favorite. "I've read through
it 14 times," he said.

"I'm not sure we've got one of those, but
let's stop by our church and see." I was
able to find my new friend a Bible that
would do well, and he seemed very grateful.

"Where are you headed from here?" I asked.

"Well, I found this little map on the back
of this amusement park coupon."

"Are you hoping to hire on there for a while?"

"No, I just figure I should go there. I figure
someone under that star right there needs
a Bible, so that's where I'm going next."

He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated
the sincerity of his mission. I drove him back to
the town square where we'd met two hours
earlier and, as we drove, it started raining. We
parked and unloaded his things.

"Would you sign my autograph book?" he asked.
"I like to keep messages from folks I meet."

I wrote in his little book that his commitment
to his calling had touched my life. I encouraged
him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse
of scripture from Jeremiah, "I know the plans I
have for you, declared the Lord, plans to prosper
you and not to harm you; plans to give you a
future and a hope."

"Thanks, man," he said. "I know we just met
and we're really just strangers, but I love you."

"I know," I said, "I love you, too."

"The Lord is good!"

"Yes, He is.. How long has it been since
someone hugged you?" I asked.

"A long time," he replied.

And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling
rain, my new friend and I embraced, and I felt
deep inside that I had been changed. He put his
things on his back, smiled his winning smile and
said, "See you in the New Jerusalem."

"I'll be there!" was my reply.

He began his journey again. He headed away
with his sign dangling from his bedroll, and a
pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said,
"When you see something that makes you
think of me, will you pray for me?"

"You bet," I shouted back, "God bless."

"God bless."

And that was the last I saw of him.

Late that evening as I left my office, the
wind blew strong. The cold front had settled
hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried
to my car. As I sat back and reached for the
emergency brake, I saw them..... a pair of well-
worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the
length of the handle. I picked them up and
thought of my friend and wondered if his hands
would stay warm that night without them.

Then I remembered his words: "If you see
something that makes you think of me, will
you pray for me?"

Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office.
They help me to see the world and its people
in a new way, and they help me remember
those two hours with my unique friend and
to pray for his ministry. "See you in the New
Jerusalem," he had said. Yes, Daniel, I know
I will...

"I shall pass this way but once. Therefore,
any good that I can do or any kindness that
I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not
pass this way again."

My instructions were to send this to four people
that I wanted God to bless and I picked you. Please
pass this to four people you want to be blessed.


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*Contributed by my dear cousin Connie