LIFE IS NOT A SNAPSHOT

Last Friday night we had an amazing encounter whilst out on Street Pastors. It had been a quiet and extremely cold night and by about 2 am I was desperately hoping the club would close early and we could get home before the usual 4 am. I then noticed someone dressed slightly strangely outside McDonalds: green wellington boots and farmer-type clothes, not the usual gear for the night revellers! He was pacing about , quite agitated and distressed. He came into McDonalds and we began to engage him in conversation.
He told us he had been out with his girlfriend who had quite suddenly gone off with a complete stranger who had invited her for a drink. He was tearful and gradually more of the story unfolded; she was wanted by the police to be returned to prison, for breaching the terms of her licence. They clearly had a stormy relationship and he had a methadone bottle in one pocket and a bottle of vodka in the other. He worked as a gamekeeper but money was tight and he told us he had been helped out many times by the Salvation Army in our town with food parcels (the SA leader is also a street pastor and we were able to tell him this).
He talked about his girlfriend, who was a crack cocaine addict, but said he still loved her, despite her volatility. They had two children together and he became even more distressed as he said they had both been adopted as social services had decided that he and his partner were 'failures' in this area. He got out his mobile phone to show us a photo of the children and to our amazement we recognised the older one as the little boy that friends at our church had fostered from birth until his very recent adoption (over 18 months). It felt like this was a real 'God -incidence', and although it wasn't possible to reveal this to him, it was possible to talk in a way that encouraged him to believe his children had been well cared for. As time went on, we learnt he had at one time been baptised as a Christian, that he still had a Bible he read sometimes, that when the baby was born, they had asked a local Baptist pastor that we knew to pray with them all, as he was extremely small and unlikely to survive. I also knew that the baby had been born opiate addicted and had many health problems early in life and God had surely answered prayers.

At this point I felt strongly it was right to ask if we could pray for him; right in the middle of a crowded McDonalds at three in the morning, and he was very grateful. I just prayed that God would touch his life, look after his children , give him assurance that they were well cared for, and begin to intervene in the problems that he and his partner faced.
In some ways it seemed a small thing, and I'm sure that he faces many struggles ahead, but it just felt like we never know what God does and we are called just to take the opportunities He gives us. That there were many evidences of God touching this man's life, that God cared about his child and had placed him in a lovely Christian home for the first 18months of his life and that this encounter we had had, in some ways, totally randomly, would also be evidence to him that there is a God who loves him and has a future and a hope for him.

The title for this blog, 'Life is not a snapshot' comes from a Josh Wilson song and reminds me that we only see things in part, but God has the bigger picture and He is the expert at putting the pieces together. It encourages me to see all the encounters I may have in my day to day life, whether at work or out doing street pastors, or in any other place , as possibilities to extend God's grace and mercy to those who need it. I may not be able to provide all the answers for people, but I can point them in the direction of a God who can and at least show them that He cares.