This entry comes from the African Proverbs, Sayings, and Stories site:
A little African boy wanted to meet God. He knew that it was a long trip to where God lived. So he packed his suitcase with small cakes and a six-pack of soda and started his journey.
When he had gone about three blocks he met an old woman.
She was sitting in the park just staring at some birds. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his can of soda when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry so he offered her a small cake. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him.
Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again. So he offered her a soda. Again she smiled at him. The boy was delighted!
The little African boy and the old woman sat there all afternoon eating and drinking and smiling, but they never said a word. As it grew dark the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave. But before he had gone more than a few steps he turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a big hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.
When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"
Meanwhile the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked: "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate small cakes and drank soda in the park with God." However, before her son could respond she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."
This is, of course, an East African adaptation of a universal story. The African Proverbs, Sayings, and Stories site is explicitly Christian in its orientation, and adds:
"When Mary Magdalene meets Jesus in the garden she first thinks he is the gardener. Then she says, "I have seen the Lord." Yes, Jesus comes to us in disguise. But how often do we recognize him? How often can we say: "I have seen the Lord."
Be excellent to each other. And, party on!
You know the story of Soddom and Gamorrah is incompletely told. There are books in the Bible that refer back to Soddom and Gamorrah's sin as not "soddomy" but unconcern for the poor, or their general selfishness and self-absorption.
Prior to the destruction of Soddom and Gamorrah, God sent down angels to try to find ten people worth saving. Now, most of the time we think of angels as kick-@$$ beings. Well, no one refuses helping out a kick-@$$ being but it is the helpless, the weak, the unfortunate that need help.
My wife and I a couple of years ago ran into a fellow who needed some cash to get back home. We flipped 5-10 bucks at him and he was nearly floored by it. Was he an angel looking for ten good people?
A friend recently licked lymphoma but the fight left her in deep debt. Some friends and myself managed to put on a fundraiser and rasied some good coin for her. That frail woman was an angel, I think she found ten good people.
You wouldn't care to fill this in a bit, would you? Deut. 29 pretty clearly lays out the reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha as being due to idolatry rather than either homosexuality or hardness of heart to the poor.
In Genesis 19, the residents of Sodom threaten Lot's party with homosexual rape but that's clearly not the reason that Sodom was condemned because the reason that the party was there was to investigate the iniquities there.
The hardness of heart against the poor appears to be a misreading of either Isaiah 1 or Ezekiel 16. Although the hardness of heart you refer to is mentioned it's not given as the reason for the destruction of the cities, just as another of their iniquities. The actual reason (clear from the context) is idolatry.
Without turning this post into a Biblical commentary what's your source?