Picking Up Crazy on Benton Road

Picking up Crazy on Benton Road
Some things are just funny. It’s not a making fun of people kind of funny, or an outlandish coincidence kind of funny. It is just funny.
Driving home from Street Church, two of the Katies and I were having a deep conversation on the state of the homeless in NW LA. As we passed by a church that was just ending their Saturday afternoon service, an elder woman was walking away from the church. She had on a pink fuzzy sweater. Did I mention that it was 94 degrees and nearly 100% humidity, and rain was beginning to fall? She wore a purple skirt and a pink tightly knitted cap. On her feet were the biggest, fluffiest pair of hot pink slippers ever made.
I had to pull over and stop. I ran back to her. She did not seem surprised that I had stopped, almost if she was expecting me. I asked if we could give her a ride, she looked at me as if it was a stupid and obvious question. She was just going up the road… to the bingo palace. I helped her into the car.
A red van pulled over behind us. Out comes another woman to talk to the hot pink slipper woman, she wanted to give her a ride. “I’ve already gotten up in this car, I’ll just ride with these women.” The 2nd woman finally tells pink slippers that she’s her brother-in-law’s wife. After a short little family reunion, off we go to the bingo palace.
On the way, pink slippers explained to us that because 2 people tried to pick her up, it’s a sign from God that she’s going to win. In the five miles to the palace, pink slippers entertained us with a bizarre conversation about how God works through bingo.
Sometimes I think we want to see God in places He’d rather not be taken. I can’t imagine God looking for “B-8” nor can I imagine Him in some the swankier places I go. Maybe we all wear pink fuzzy slippers and walk down Benton Road sometimes taking God where He’d does not want to go. And maybe we all make wild claims about God’s character and His ways.
We might have picked up crazy in pink slippers on Benton Road, but for sure, God was in the car that day!

---