It’s a Saturday morning

Streetlights still aglow

In the dead of winter

I feel the wind blow

I debate driving to Chesapeake

For another race

I love to compete

I step back inside and lace my shoes

Tell Billy, “Come on,”

I watch the sleepy Golden move

We venture out into the bitter air

It’s clean

The desolate sidewalks and naked crepe myrtles are a beautiful scene

The black sky turns ashen

I read the Gospel of John this morning, pondering what it means

God coming to the world in such strange fashion

In my neighborhood, I stay right here

Watching the streetlights disappear

My dog and I trot down the streets

While all the neighbors sleep

We finally get to the field behind the church

I let Billy run free

He frolics and sprints, joyfully

I hear a noise from behind the dumpster

A man crawls out

He looks like a monster

But strangely familiar

There’s a dim light from within the church and a few shadows moving inside

We eye each other, both feeling a little peculiar

Time to run, I decide

Billy and I take off toward home

None of the streetlights glow

When I get to the porch there’s that man I saw before

He was going door to door

Telling people of God’s love

On Sunday morning I saw that man preaching

His name was posted

He was my Bible teacher in high school

He looked at me as he announced, “Compete for eternal life, after Jesus you should strive.”

The man had little money

He’d given all away

He lived in the back of the church with a few of the homeless

But some nights he still slept on the street

The Gospel his defense

He taught it everywhere he went

Even when I was in high school I didn’t know he didn’t have a home

But I remember the wisdom and love he’d shown

My dog and I jog in the mornings

We watch the sky change with the streetlights

Thinking about life

Eternal

With each diurnal run

I think about the message of my teacher, the preacher

And I continue to chase the One

Who came to meet me

In the dead of winter