The dog’s barks rose to a loud cacophony! I knew someone was at the door, and suspected that it was Cosmos. Cosmos has been dropping in to see us about 3 times a week for the past year. I can’t even remember when we first met him but we now know him to be a gentle yet troubled soul. He at times attends our church and when he is there he sings like an angel. Sometimes I wonder if he might be an angel in human form. But honestly, we don’t really know where he comes from. We just know that he usually comes to our door for help, and we have to figure out how to deal with the constant requests.

We have a personal policy, that we never give out money. We know that it doesn’t solve anything.  Yet, Cosmos is unemployed and seems to have a slight mental delay. He lives in a small shack and doesn’t have enough food for daily meals. I can tell that he is often hungry. Sometimes, we might make him a sandwich, and when it is cold, we have given him some clothes. But we are very much aware that we don’t want him to become dependent. Yet, his mental capacities leave us realizing that he doesn’t have a lot of options going for him. So what would you do? What does Jesus call us to do? Give to those who ask?

We came up with a solution, Cosmos could wash our car once in a while. We would pay him a meagre R20 ($2 CDN). We can’t pay him any more because the daily wage here is R100 ($10 CDN) and we don’t want to disturb the economic balance. Today is Wednesday, I am prepping Aerobics routines and Jeremy is doing video editing. Cosmos arrives and I decide that I won’t be needing the car in the next hour, so he can wash the car. Jeremy unravels the hose and gets the water going. I provide bucket and towels. Cosmos begins his job. He works diligently and carefully….

But then I hear a clunk!

All of a sudden I see water cascading up out of the ground at the connection for the outdoor hose. I run outside and discover that Cosmos has pulled the outdoor tap off the wall and completely out of its place. Water is now uncontrollably spewing everywhere and we have no way to turn it off except at the municipality water meter. Jeremy manages to figure out how to do that with an Allen wrench although Dan told us later that he could have burst the valve on the meter.

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Thankfully, the water got turned off but now we are faced with a plumbing repair and no water in the house until the plumber comes. All this hassle for just trying to give a person an opportunity to gain dignity through earning his wage instead of getting a handout. Honestly, at first, I just wanted to cry. But I realized that Cosmos doesn’t really know what he is doing and perhaps the connection on the water pipe was going anyway. Perhaps this saved us from having the connection go while we were away and coming home to a flood and hefty water bill. Who knows! Now we have a shiny car and Cosmos walks off proudly with the R20. Perhaps he will buy his bread tonight.

I don’t tell you this story to make me look good.

Please don’t tell me “Well Done” in a comment.

What we do is part of our human duty. Not very often does it require true sacrifice. Have you ever noticed that we help as far as we are comfortable? I am often confronted with my utter self concern. I share this day in our lives merely to help bring meaning to this crazy world we live in. Why does Cosmos have a standard of living so much lower than ours? Why does he struggle every day? How can I let my life be influenced by him and his gift to the world? The crowning moment of the whole day, is that after Cosmos has burst our water pipe, washed our car and received his R20, he comes to say goodbye and he asks for a photo with me. The situation is exceedingly ironic and touching; I comply, printing it on the printer for him to take with him.

I believe that one day we will see people like Cosmos in a different light. We will see that we are no better than him. We will see the equality of our humanity and for today, I want the humility to consider Cosmos as richer, wiser and more compassionate than myself. In that reflective stance, I finally find peace!

KW