A Man In A White Hoodie

by Dot Killian

I was driving down the street the other day, and turned into a restaurant drive-through to get a sandwich. Just before I got to the driveway, a man standing on the opposite side of the street in a white hoodie started walking toward my car. He was saying something to me but I panicked. I immediately locked my doors and pretended not to see him. But I could hear him saying, “Hey, Ma’am,” but I ignored him and turned into the drive-through. There was a long line so I decided to keep going. I drove through the parking lot and headed back home.

I had driven a few miles when I got a nagging feeling I should have stopped when the man in the white hoodie was calling out to me. I said to myself, “How is that you can see this man, hear this man calling you, and you drive away? Aren’t you the same person who constantly reminds people about Matthew 25?” The words rang out in my mind and in my heart. “For as much as you have not done it for the least of these, you have not done it for me.” Then I started making excuses to myself. “I don’t have any change.” “I have to get home.” “I give to other people and other charities.” But none of the excuses erased the feeling I was experiencing. Then I prayed, “Lord, forgive me for failing to answer when you were calling me.”

When I said that, I knew I had to do something. I pulled into a store and got change then headed back to the corner where the man had been standing. I looked for the white hoodie but I didn’t see it. He was gone. I drove through the parking lot of the restaurant and headed back down the street when suddenly, there he was. He was walking on the sidewalk right next to my car. I pulled over and he started walking toward my car. This time I rolled down the window, handed him a $20.00 bill and told him to be blessed. His eyes were red and he looked as though he probably had too much to drink. But he said, “Bless you, Ma’am. Bless you, Ma’am.” His words gave me hope and I am grateful I was given the opportunity to be a blessing to him. He was a man in a white hoodie but he was and is much more. He is a child of God who cannot be ignored and who has the power to speak blessings to a weary preacher whom he has never met.