Noel spelled H-E-N-R-Y

This Saturday morning I went strolling down Abids. Abids is a busy street where life happens. My nostrils took in the polluted air, but it didn't bother me like it did when we first moved here. Buses, cars, and rickshaws zoomed past us and occasionally a rickshaw would stop to see if we wanted a ride. I dropped a rupee into the hand of a sweet elderly woman, her severely deformed legs peeked out from under her skirt. A group of school children clothed in uniform stared, giggled, and then shyly waved. The school children, especially the girls, always wave. I was not alone, in fact I was in great company. My friends Hollie and Noel walked alongside me chatting and taking in the sights, smells and sounds. Although it all sounds quite glorious, one actually grows used to it. All the specifics fade into the sum of the city... Back to my company, we have all grown quite fond of Noel. Maybe it's his gentleness or his secret intellect or his genuine care for one's well-being. He is famous for saying, "My name is H-E-N-R-Y but you can call me Noel." I can still hear him spelling it out, never actually saying "Henry." Noel lives somewhere close by, although I'm not sure quite where. Maybe he sleeps on a street corner that he calls his own or in a makeshift shack. I wouldn't call Noel a begger, he's never asked for anything. You see Noel used to work in a bank and was even in the peace corp for a while. You wouldn't guess that about him unless you talked to him for a while. He has long grey locks that are always slicked back, a wiry frame, a kind face, and an unabashed smile revealing several missing teeth. He has one shirt, one pair of pants, and a pair of sandals that have holes worn all the way through. Noel wanders the streets in our neighborhood, and when he sees us he always politely asks how we've been and if we have "taken breakfast." This morning Hollie and I took Noel christmas shopping. A whopping $8 bought him a plaid button down, long-sleeved shirt and a new pair of trousers. He picked the cheapest. Once a bright little school girl told us not to talk to Noel because he was a begger. Hollie smiled and responded, "He's my friend."
Why do I introduce you to Noel? Because he's precious and he teaches me about life. I'm not sure how to put it all into words, how can an individual be put accurately into words? words no matter how extravagant cannot perfectly describe something living, breathing, changing, moving, feeling...although somehow i try.
One night i was walking home past the small chapel near where we stay. there were people inside and the priest was leading them in prayer over a loud-speaker in a deep, mono-tone voice. there were people looking around and teenagers talking. and then i saw him. i stopped and a tear built up in my eye. in the pew closest to the exit sat Noel with his hands in his face. i think Jesus would have been friends with Noel had they ever crossed paths....
but maybe they have, and maybe they are...
maybe i just want people to love people more...especially the outcasts, the poor, the lonely, the mistreated, the misunderstood. i think Jesus was that way. He loved people. Free of charge. No strings attached. Without thinking about how He might be blessed. He loved people.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted; to understand than to be understood; to love than to be loved; for it is by forgetting self that one finds; it is by forgiving that one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. --Mother Theresa