I love talking to strangers: Ezra

While I was in Chicago the other day, I was just chilling on a picnic bench near "The Bean". I could have taken photographs, but it was more interesting to people watch:

- I spied 4 different wedding groups
- I listened in on 5 different foreign language conversations
- I saw people who had better cameras than my own, and I cried (jk)
- I saw little kids being hugged by grandparents
- I saw people of many different nations gathered...

Anyway, I watched and listened on, and then I met Ezra.

Ezra was the guy who was sitting across from where I was at, in a moment of spontaneity and curiousity, I asked the guy (Ezra) across from me how he was doing. Ezra was loud from the getgo! He shared how he was fine and how nice it was in Chicago. I agreed with him and then we started making jokes about the wedding groups we were watching, we both wanted the brides to toss us their bouquets instead of the garter belts, just casual and amusing jokes like that.
Ezra then went into detail about his name, how Ezra was a minor prophet from the Old Testament and pretty much every other aspect about Ezra! "Wow" I kept thinking to myself "he knows it well!" I'm not sure if his knowledge of the Bible was head knowledge or heart knowledge, but God knows where he's at nonetheless.
I started talking to him about my recent travels down to Nashville, he seemed interested more about my journey there than actually what I did there. He went off on a tangent about Georgia and out of nowhere he just started belting out "Georgia on my mind" by Ray Charles...this, among other verbal loudness made people move away from him and I, but still I stuck with him and conversed with him.

When I had to go I wished him a good day, he gripped my hand tightly and gave it a good shake, and off I went and Ezra went back to watching people at The Bean. All in all, I enjoyed my conversation with a stranger.

***

We're all strangers from the getgo, but when we cross the bridge of relationships, the move from stranger to friend occurs. I enjoy being intentional/relational with those around me, not just friends but strangers and given invested time those strangers become friends to me :)

[n][v]