Greetings from NYC: The city that doesn’t sleep: The Big Apple. Over the last few days I have seen places that a southern boy never knew existed. I have looked up as far as I could, then backed up so I could look up higher and see the tops of the buildings. I have seen the richest of stores: 195.00 for a pair of jeans……no telling how much they would have cost if they hadn’t had the hole in them. I have seen the fanciest of restaurants….of course I ate at the Mickey D’s (sat in the third floor of the Mickey D’s). They say the neon lights shine bright on Broadway, and they do. 
Last night I had the privilege of seeing CHICAGO. 
The name on everybody’s lips might have been Roxy Hart, however, Amos Hart, her husband, sang his signature song “Mr. Cellophane”. You see Amos Heart, played by Ron Orbach, was Mr. Cellophane. Nobody noticed he was there: You could look and see right through him, right past him, and all the way around him. Nobody knew that Amos Hart existed. After looking up at all the tall buildings, the neon lights (which shine bright on Broadway) I looked down and saw Mr. Cellophane on the street. While New York City is filled with the happy, the bright, the big, there is a group of people who stand there almost unseen. Their lights don’t shine bright on Broadway. They don’t have enough money to go see a Broadway play. They don’t have enough money to eat on the third floor of the Mickey D’s (whose lights shine just as bright as those on Broadway). They don’t stay in apartments overlooking central park. They don’t stay in the three or five hundred dollars a night hotel in the city. And when they ride the subway, some of them it is not to go home: It is because it is their home.
In all the happiness of the Big Apple and the city that doesn’t sleep, there is a darker side represented by the people who have no home. There is a darker side represented by the people who picked up the change that I accidentally dropped (on purpose) to maybe put with some change that somebody else dropped to hope it grows enough for them to buy themselves a meal. In the city where people throw bread crumbs to the pigeons, we have brothers and sisters standing beside us who have no home. They have no food. The other side of the neon lights is the burned out lights of the homeless.
They are Mr. and Ms. Cellophane. They’re are people who people look at and don’t see. They’re are people who speak to you and are not heard. Yet, they are people. They are people who for whatever reason, some maybe by their own bad judgement, have been dealt cards by the bottom of life’s deck. As Christians, we talk about Christian love: The love that God has for all of HIS people. These people, created by the same God who created you and me, stand unseen. They are unheard. They have not bee hugged in years. They have not been spoke to. On the coldest of nights, their clothes are ragged. They’re our brothers and sisters.
James wrote, “And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit here in a good place, and say to the poor man you stand there, or, sit here at my foot stool,” Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts (James 2:3-4)? Had James seen Mr. Cellophane?
“If a brother or sister is naked in destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warm and filled, but you do not give them things which are needed for the body, what does it profit” (James 2:15-16)? James says we are supposed to see Mr. Cellophane. James says that we are supposed to help Mr. Cellophane. We will never be able to help anyone spiritually until we begin to care for their physically.
“Cellophane. Mr. Cellophane. Should’a been my name. Mr. Cellophane. Cause you can look right through me. Walk right by me, and never know I’m there” – Jerry Orbach as Amos Hart in Chicago the Musical.
I am thoroughly enjoying my brief stay in NYC. I’ve seen the tower of the Donald’s (Trump and Duck): I’ve looked up at the Empire State Building: I’ve seen Central Park: I’ve stood in Times Square: I’ve prayed in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. But I think the most eye opening thing I’ve seen in New York, were the pictures from life’s other side.
More from New York on my next update.
Until next time May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You: All Ya’ll.
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobbycohoon