When Love Looks Like Costco Socks

I saw him standing on the corner of the narrow downtown San Diego streets from the passenger seat of my friend's enormous white pickup truck. There was something that made that man who calmly stared down an otherwise hectic street that stood out to me. Immediately, I felt like I needed to go offer him socks and a sandwich.

A few Saturdays each month, my friend with the enormous white pickup truck and I would take food and socks and hand them out as we hung out with some homeless people known to live in the area. But that man didn't seem homeless, so I almost talked myself out of it.  Wouldn't he be offended if a random stranger offered him a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich and generic white Costco socks?  

My friend and I first had to park and haul bags of food down a five-floor parking garage. I assumed he would be gone by the time we got to that street corner— which I thought was perfect excuse to not do something potentially embarrassing and offensive.

But, when my friend and I walked out of that garage ten minutes later, I saw the man still standing in the exact same spot. There wasn't a way out- I knew we needed to go talk to him. So my friend and I crossed the street and walked straight up to him. 

"Excuse me. This is random, but do you want socks or a sandwich or a bottle of water?" I asked. His eyes widened and his face looked limp. For a few seconds, he didn't say anything. It was just enough time for me to convince myself that I had just offended a random stranger in the middle of a busy street with the audience of judge-y strangers. I almost started to apologize when his face finally showed what emotion he was feeling- shock. 

"What?" He spit out suddenly. "Did you just offer me socks? Are you serious? I just told God that I need socks and that I wasn't leaving this street corner until I got new socks."

My friend and I stood there, sharing his shock. This was the first time I'd ever heard anyone say that they prayed for socks. And the first time I’d ever heard anyone waiting on a busy street corner until their sock prayer was answered.  But yes, within minutes, God answered his request. 

All of us laughed because we didn't know what to say. He was clearly deeply moved and didn't say much after that- though he said he felt loved. My friend and I chatted with him for a quick minute, and he let us pray for him. Then, he left that street corner with the exact thing he asked God for.

Later, it hit me what the encounter demonstrated. The profound, immense, deep, passionate care that God had for that man was practically expressed through a single pair of Costco men's white crew cut socks. The fact that something that felt so big could take shape through something so mundane hit me hard. That meant that everyday, I had the ability to make the love of God manifest through things that seemed to me to be so insignificant and ordinary.

All of the socks-and-sandwiches stuff started when I was a college student and read the description of “true fasting” that God said He wants in Isaiah 58: “Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless (Isa. 58:7a NLT).” I decided to take that fasting literally. I cut down on my food budget and whenever I saved an extra $15, enough for the ingredients for 40 sandwiches, I would make up a bunch of peanut butter and jelly, and take them to parts of downtown where the homeless often stayed. We would hang out and talk, enjoying the year-round San Diego sun together. Later, I brought socks along after many told me that's what they needed the most. One of my new friends went so far as to call them “White Gold.”

During this season in my life, it would have been easier with my busy student schedule to give my money away to a hunger-related cause. But when I prayed about what to do with the money, I felt like I needed to do something that would give personal connection to the hungry that I was sharing "my food" with. 

There was so much that I learned through the “socks and sandwiches” years. But this one has stuck deeply with me. Something as ordinary and boring as $2 Costco socks can supernaturally communicate the immense care and concern that God has for each of us.

My focus in doing justice work for a long time had been to look for the big, important projects because I had assumed that those were what must have been big and important to God. But experiences like this taught me that all actions- big and small- have the ability tangibly express God's love.

While small gestures are easy to overlook because they can seem mundane and unimportant, if we let ourselves be motivated by love, those gestures can have a deep impact. Whenever we share our lives, our food, and ourselves— no matter how small it may seem— we get to participate in demonstrating to the world what a generous and caring Father that God is.

-Jessica Nicholas