a friend in jail

So I had my first friend go to jail recently, and I didn't even know it. I wish I had known when it happended so I could have gone to visit him.

The friend I am talking about is a guy named Smokie who lives at the shelter, and sleeps in a bed near Willie and John Romani. I haven't been to the shelter in the last two weeks because of Christmas and New Years, so I haven't been in the loop as much at the shelter. But last night when I was working, everyone was excited to see Smokie because he hadn't been there for a while. After telling him I had been gone for two weeks too and asking where he had been, he told me he had been a "bad boy" (this is a 45 year old man) compared to my time with my family. Eventually he conceded and told another volunteer and I that he had been caught with a bag of weed and was put in prison for two weeks.

But before you judge him for getting caught with a bag of weed, (I've had my fair share of college friends who have done plenty of weed) you must realize he is my friend and is not much different from me and you. Not only has this experience at the shelter given me a new perspective of the homeless, but now is has begun to give me a new understanding of prisoners. And really, these are the people Jesus hung out with too.