“Asleep Under The Heavens” by Lucy Ann Quattrone
One day a friend whose ministry calling is to work with the homeless, contacted me to ask if I would help her document some pictures of the homeless in our town. As I was known in our circle of friends to be the one who always had a camera, photographing everything and everyone, this did not seem to me to be an unusual request. Little did I know that God was up to something!
We proceeded to several areas around town where the homeless are known to “hang out”. One of the places is a local park, one in which I in fact, frequently go to to walk. On this particular day there were several homeless people spread out throughout the park. One in particular caught my attention in a special way. This man was asleep in the middle of the park with his bike and his bag of belongings. As I snapped his photo I felt a tug in my heart unsure of exactly what that was, I remember praying as I walked away. We finished our rounds that day and I went home.
From that day on whenever I would see a homeless person I found myself full of compassion and burdened to pray. I realized after awhile that the tug I felt in my heart that day, was God revealing to me “his heart of compassion” for the homeless. One evening I was out around town with a team of others sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with those we met. We were at the same park where I had taken the photo of this homeless man. We met several homeless people that evening and began to talk with them. An invitation was given for them to come the following day with us to church. They accepted the invitation, and thus a start to a wonderful friendship with several of these men had begun.
Day after day, week after week, I would go to the park just to spend time with these men, we would talk, laugh, cry, sing and pray together. I learned that they have so much to share and are looking for someone who will listen to them. One man in particular would always play his guitar or mandolin for me. He even writes his own music. When I would go to the park, I would often find him worshiping God with his music. Our friendship grew over a period of several months. God truly had given me a compassion for relating to the homeless with his love.
One evening while at home, I was looking through my photos and realized that in the pictures I had taken over a year ago of the homeless in the park, the photo of the man asleep, was one of the several who I now call my friends.
When I realized this, I was inundated with God’s love and amazed at what he had done in my life. I learned a valuable lesson on how God works his perfect plan in and through our lives. That day I wrote a poem about that very experience, however, God was not yet done with this story. I forwarded the poem to a good friend of mine, Jordy, who happened to be one of the ministry team members out with me that evening in the park when we were sharing the love of Jesus with the homeless. He also happens to be a song writer; he too was touched by the poem. A few days later was my birthday. He asked the Lord to give him a song to bless me with as a present. It was from that prayer request, an old photo, and a poem from the heart, that the SONG “Asleep Under The Heavens” was written. It was my birthday present from a dear friend and an awesome God!
