the teddy bear

we stayed at a Salvation Army community center in downtown Denver this week, having class in the morning and doing ministry in the afternoon/evening.  (Mriss – LoDo means “Lower Downtown”, it’s just a term that caught on for downtown Denver)

wednesday night we went down again to the main street downtown (16th St. Mall).  we were each give $1 and put in groups of 3 or 4.  we could do whatever we wanted with our dollars, but we couldn’t just give them away.  we were supposed to buy something with them (and we could pool together with everyone in our group and also add our own personal money if we wanted to).  so before we went out, each group prayed together to see if God gave anyone “pictures” of what we were to buy.

now, I’m not all into the “pray and see what images God brings to mind” game.  honestly, I feel like a lot of times it’s just people’s own imaginations.  and I’ve never really prayed with people who were praying with the sole intent to get pictures from God until I came here.  sometimes friends in the past have said God randomly gave them a vision or whatever and I don’t question those – that seems more legit.

ANYWAY – I’m not here to argue whether or not God speaks to us thru giving us pictures.    so – back to the story (this is a true story, by the way – just thought I’d thought that in).  so our group prayed (3 of us in our group) and 2 of them saw a teddy bear, and 1 of them also saw the color pink, a stroller, and little kid toys.  the only thing I had to add was that I felt like it didn’t necessarily have to be a homeless person that we gave this something to (a lot of the outreach this week was geared toward the homeless).  I just felt like even though it could be a homeless person we blessed, we should be open to blessing anyone we may come across no matter of their social/economic status.

so we go downtown and hit up Walgreens and end up buying a teddy bear.  then we walked around, looking for a little kid and/or someone pushing a kid in a stroller.  it was about 8:30/9pm so the chances of seeing little kids was kinda getting slim.  we came to an ice cream shop and saw 2 little girls inside, 1 wearing a pink coat.  so we stood outside, debating whether or not we should give them the bear.  they came out and started walking away and no one felt like we should give them the bear (it was kinda weird to give the 1 bear to 2 girls and be like…”here, you’re wearing pink, so you get it – haha).  so we held on to the bear but realized it was time to meet our group and head back to our place.  so we got on one of the busses that runs up and down the street, hoping to find a little kid on the bus.  no such luck.  we got off the bus near our meeting place and stood outside a couple shops, trying to decide what to do with the bear.

we saw an older man in a store so we decided we’d just give it to him when he came out.  so we stood there waiting and waiting and he kept getting distracted by things in the little store.  then we saw a husband and wife walk by, swinging their little girl.  we all looked at each other and go “…let’s just do it!” so we walk up and Davidson (in my group) goes “excuse me…we bought this teddy bear tonight to give to someone and we saw your little girl and wondered if she’d like to have it?” a little bit of an awkward silence.  then the mom goes “I can’t believe this…I had told my little girl we’d get her a teddy bear tonight and I had just realized the store was closed so we weren’t going to be able to get one tonight…!”  wow.  crazy.  so they accepted the bear and we asked if we could pray for them about anything.  they paused and then the husband goes, “Yeah, actually…you could pray for our marriage…”  he was SO honest to just out right say that to us, strangers.  so we prayed for them and when we were done, the woman had tears in her eyes.  they asked what church we went to, and told us they used to go to this certain church but it kinda sounded like they didn’t go regularly anymore (hard to tell).  and the woman then said she had been struggling lately and really felt like this moment was for her – that God had given her this moment.

stoked.  I couldn’t believe how the night had ended.  it definitely gave some validity to the picture the 2 people in my group had both gotten.  growing my faith.  I cannot put God in a box.  all glory to Him for what He did that night!!

I like to think that whenever that husband and wife see their little girl’s teddy bear, it will remind them of God’s goodness and His intimacy.