The Book of Love

Back in early January I discovered that one of our Manna Cafe regulars, G, had landed in jail for forgery. G has no family--at least no one who claims him--so he hadn't yet received his "24-hour bag," i.e. the bag of essentials like bath towels and books that every inmate is allowed. So I gathered some things, including a bible, and dropped them off at the jail. 


A few days later, during my first visit to G, I quickly realized that conversation was going to be rough at times, and it's no wonder. He was profoundly depressed. I interact with a lot of broken, confused, hurting people, but G's story is one of the most heartbreaking, and now here he was in jail. To top it off, because of certain issues, he's considered high risk, and therefore he's completely isolated for 23 hours a day, with no communal meals, television, outdoor time, or any other diversion. 


Even so, G was reading his bible every day. He was clearly unfamiliar with it, so he was seeing it with fresh eyes, and he grew more animated as he talked about what he'd read. It was difficult to get through the list of names in the first chapter of Matthew, he said, but the rest of Matthew was pretty good.  


During each subsequent visit, G always mentioned his daily readings. This past weekend he reported, "I'm in Hebrews now. It's all about the heavenly temple. There was a tabernacle on earth, you know, a holy place with a Holy of Holies inside it, but Hebrews explains the heavenly temple and makes comparisons between the one on earth and the one in heaven." 


Wow, I thought. 


But that wasn't even the best of it. G had also been reading Romans. And, in the midst of depression, confusion, and loneliness, he had discovered what some people fail to discover in a lifetime: 


"Romans says a lot about faith . . . but what it's really talking about is love. There's so much about love in there."