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The Can Man
I work in a major US factory. We make refrigerators. Four thousand five hundred new refrigerators every day. It is a union shop and it's gradually shrinking as many union blue collar factories seem to be but that is not what this story is about.

This story is about one man who works in this huge factory. I've seen him around for years but never paid much attention. He always seemed just a little odd. A little short. A little ...scruffy. Always the same old red ball cap. And always a garbage bag in one hand. He walks around this big old factory on his breaks and his lunch time collecting aluminum cans. Day after day, month after month on hot days and cold days. Over the years I've followed him as he walked to his old pickup truck on the coldest day with snow blowing and everyone with their collars turned up and their hands in their pockets. He would be there with a 40 gallon garbage bag full of aluminum cans. He'd toss it into the back of his truck and jump in and I'd reach my car and jump in and we'd all race to the exit of this big half empty parking lot.

Today I was working on a broken machine in this factory and the can man came by with his bag picking up cans. Our manager was standing there because the machine I was working on had been "down" for a couple of hours and he was getting worried that we might run one of the assembly lines out of the parts. I was finishing and I stood up just as the manager asked the can man what he did with all those cans. I'd never thought to ask him that question because I always just assumed he cashed them in at the recycle center.

The can man said "I give them to my neighbor, he's epileptic and can't hold a job".
I blurted out, "you mean you've been collecting all those cans for all these years to give to your neighbor??"
"It ain't much" he said "but I give them to him. He can't hold a job, he has too many seizures".

Right then and there in that factory I found myself looking smack at the face of Jesus. He was wearing a T-shirt and an old red ball cap and he had a garbage bag full of aluminum cans in his hand and it WAS Jesus!
It was one of the most humbling moments of my entire life.

"Dear Lord, I offer my prayer for the can man. I don't even know his name but You do. Lord, I lift him up to You. Bless him and watch over him for his is surely one of your best foot soldiers. He is a man whose feet I am unworthy to wash!! Thank you God for sending the can man to help his neighbor and for the lesson he taught me. May I remember it long after today!
Amen!"

Dan Dobson, Louisville Emmaus 22