We stood on the corner of Granville and 14th, outside the Shoppers Drug Mart I passed nearly every day. My two-year-old son sat in the stroller, oblivious to the moment. We were simply on our way to the park.

Normally, it would have felt like a strange request. Yes, I’m a hugger, but I’m not accustomed to hugging men I don’t know on the side of a busy street.

But this was different.

James leaned on his cane, tears streaming down his face, and I sensed the Holy Spirit whisper: James has not been touched in a very long time. Will you be a vessel of My love?

So I leaned in and hugged this man who was so clearly on God’s heart.

I had felt prompted to stop and pray for James after walking past him twice that week. I knew almost nothing about his story, whether he had a home or was staying in a nearby shelter. All I knew was that he was in pain.

He was struggling to walk. He was frustrated that his pain medication wasn’t covered at the drugstore. And the rosary hanging from his cane had been a gift from his mom, the last, and only, person he could remember praying for him.

He couldn’t believe that someone who didn’t know him would stop and ask if they could pray.

“I think God sent you today,” James told me as we pulled away from the hug, “because I asked Him this morning if He was there.”

I told James the only thing I knew with certainty in that moment:

"God sees you.
God loves you.
And God sent someone to remind you.”

As I continued down Granville, pushing the stroller and asking the Lord to keep revealing His love to James, I felt tears well up in my own eyes.

I’m still not sure whether that encounter was more for James or for me.

How often is God already at work right beside me, in my neighbourhood, on the streets I walk every day, revealing His love for me and for the people around me, while I barely notice?

I had probably seen James a dozen times before.

But today, my eyes were open.