Sounds like a typical story of these folks we call “the homeless.” Husband and wife left the town where they had been raised, where they were established, and took off for “elsewhere,” convinced that “the good life” had been promised to them once they got to “elsewhere.” Of course, once they said they were going, other family members decided to go along, and next thing you know there was this whole gang of them wandering around from town to town, working now and then but most of the time just making do wherever they were staying and now and then getting some government hand-outs in places where they were able to make friends with the powers that were. Homeless shelters are packed with folks like this.
Then there’s another couple. They left the town where they had been living to go off to his family’s old home town, without ever making arrangements for a place to stay. She was pregnant, a solid 8 ½ months along. Back in the old home town some people had whispered about their marriage, because he was around thirty and she was just in her middle teens. Probably wouldn’t even be a legal marriage today. Anyway, they got to town, they didn’t have any place to stay, and (wouldn’t you know it?) the baby started coming. By then they were staying in somebody’s garage. The baby was born there. What chance does a kid like that have?
Typical homeless folks, right? Stories we’ve heard a hundred times.
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In fact, their stories are written down. In a book called The Bible. First couple? Abraham and Sarah, the “parents” of Judaism. Second couple? By now you could guess it. That’s right—Joseph and Mary with their infant son Jesus. At points in their lives all of them were homeless. So if you should happen to be reading the series about homelessness in Dakota County currently appearing in The Patch and thinking that this is just a bunch of bleeding heart liberal stuff, that real people, good people, solid people, don’t wind up being homeless, take a minute to think about those old-time homeless folks Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, Mary, Jesus, and consider the possibility that you just might be wrong.
