Walking near my workplace yesterday I was stopped by a lady asking for money. The light had changed so I couldn’t cross the street and thus was unable to employ my usual strategy of walking past while looking straight ahead. She was fairly obviously unemployed at the moment, probably around 35, overweight, with some sort of mealy substance all around her mouth and chin as if she had just finished messily eating something. When she spoke it wasn’t in any of the normal voices of a beggar, not bitter and accusative or depressed and forlorn. In fact, it was almost the voice of a child.
“Sir, can you buy me a cold drink?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have any money on me at the moment.”
She looked at me plaintively, and I could only reiterate, shrugging, what I had said, which was completely true.
“I don’t have anything on me right now.”
Now she paused for a second and then, looking at me again, asked:
“Well, can I have a hug?”
That simple question came out of nowhere. People don’t usually ask you for hugs on busy streetcorners in the middle of the day, especially not after asking you for money. What was I going to do? I gave her a hug, of course, saying:
“Yes, you can have a hug.”
At first I didn’t think she was going to let go of me, but then I realized she was just giving me a good, strong hug. What had I done for her? Nothing, as far as I can tell, but she seemed to think so. Maybe it was just the fact that I stopped on that busy corner and talked to her, though I had no idea who she was. Or maybe she asked everyone for a hug. Heaven knows this world could use a few more hugs in it.
As I walked on from the encounter, the light having changed, I realized what the gospels mean when they tell us that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Sometimes events on this earth are too remarkable, too indicative of some unearthly bond between human beings, to ignore. Just a simple request for a hug, but I think it’s something I need to treasure up and ponder about.
That story made me smile.
Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to hug strangers, for by so doing some people have hugged angels without knowing it.
(Teresa’s Revised Version)