Beauty and the Streets

I have an image in my mind that makes me smile every time I remember. Last night I ran teens drop-in, since both staff for it were on holidays. I've been working mostly with the younger children this year, so while some of the evening was "as usual" it still felt new.

One of the volunteers there, I had never met before. She was tall, blond, and quiet. I always wonder how suburban preppy-types end up volunteering in the inner city, but since I once was one of them, I figure it's a good thing. Early in the evening, she pulled a basketball from behind the counter and asked if it was okay if she went outside to play a little with a couple of girls. I was happy to take her job serving juice & snacks, and we swapped, and I did not think much of it. Until an hour later, when I wandered outside to sign kids in... there she was, in a full-fledged basketball game, somehow integrating the two girls she started with, with a handful of eight-year-olds who wouldn't go home and, to my shock, five older, hardened teen guys. I knew those guys... or at least I thought I did. "Martin" was about four feet taller than I remembered, and in a deeper-than-I-remembered voice, told me he was sixteen: wasn't he 8 last just last year?

This was the first time I'd seen "Kevin" outside of the correctional facility: how long was he out for? Kevin had a reputations a a terror in his younger days, and the cops once told us they were "just waiting for Kevin to turn thirteen." They had a list longer than their arms of infractions, but legally had their hands tied until his thirteenth birthday. As far as I knew, he'd been in lock-up ever since. But Jason was in a category all of his own... and far worse than Martin & Kevin's.

So how did they come to be here, shooting hoops with a blond girl from the suburbs, playing nice around little kids and even letting the girls take some shots?

They played all evening, taking a break only for our "God-talk" time, and a quick snack. The volunteer's energy never waned, and organized a competitive game sandwiched between an inclusive round of 21, and a quick game of pick-up.

I wondered at this: five guys who'll be lucky just to stay out of jail their whole lives, and one young lady who took the risk to take a basketball onto the street: did she even know who she was playing with?

I think maybe she did. And I think maybe that was okay with her. Because I'm pretty sure every time I peeked outside, there was Jesus, hanging out with the sinners, saying "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick... For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:12-13)

It was beautiful.