What if it's Him???

I wanted to share what God showed me on New Year's Eve at our church's annual card party... Every year, our church clears out the auditorium and sets up a number of card tables all in preparation for our Annual New Year's Eve Card Party! This year, I was supposed to be with the Youth Group at a separate party in a local gym...but asked our Youth Pastor if I could attend the Card Party in effort to reach out to the college group...and I am glad that he said yes. After filling our plates high with food and settling in to our seats, the game began. We play a game called Hokum Bridge which requires you to switch partners and tables every round...so, you are constantly meeting new people. A couple hands into the game, I noticed a new guy walk in the back of the auditorium. He was a big guy and I started to feel very intimidated. One of the ladies and a couple guys went to talk to him...no one knew who invited him or how he knew we were having a party. He went back to the food room and filled a plate of food and then went to our Pastor to ask if he could play in the game...there wasn't a space available right then, but he was welcome to wait and fill in if people needed to leave. I watched as he walked all the way around to the back of the church and sat down at a table by himself. So many thoughts were going through my head...compassion, fear, pity, intimidation....who was this man? I watched as different people would go up to him and sit down and talk to him...again...who was this man? To make a long story short an opening became available in our row, and this man ended up being my partner the next round....in the moment that I realized that he was to be my partner...the scripture that says...if ye have done it to the least of these, ye have done it unto me....hit me like a ton of bricks...I asked myself...what if this man is Jesus? I am not meaning to sound strange...I just realized that God puts people in my path every day and I am being tested as to how I will respond to them....what if it's Him? What if He disguised Himself as this man to see how He would be treated in a church full of believers? What was my response to Him? I learned a valuable lesson that night...Who am I to choose who deserves the Father's love...I can't pick and choose who I reach out to just because of their outward appearance...I need to extend the arms of Christ and His love to every person that I come in contact with...there is a hurting world out there that desperately needs to see and feel the Father's love...what am I doing to share that today? Who knows what this man's story was...but I do know that he was sent to our church that night to remind me that I need to reach out to every person that comes across my path and be an extension of Jesus to them...this world needs Jesus...am I showing them a clear picture of Who my Savior is?