In The Ragman, the Ragman, the Christ, Walter Wangerin tells of following a ragpicker through the streets of the inner city.  Unlike many such persons, this fellow is young and strong and offers the cry "rags, rags, I trade old rags for new."

The narrator in this marvelous story follows the man through the streets and discovers that he makes good on his offer.  To a child with a dirty, bloody rag tied around her head, the ragpicker trades a new bonnet.  With the bloody rag, however, comes the wound - an injury which is transferred to the head of the ragpicker.  An old woman is found crying into a filthy rag.  The picker trades her for a clean kerchief but he pays the price of taking her tears with the rag.  Later, he trades an angry, one-armed, unemployed fellow a new coat for an old one.  Once again, however, the ragman seems to get more than he bargained for.  With the new coat he offers goes an arm.  The man once crippled is now whole.

As the hours pass, the ragpicker shows the wear of his day's work.  He began the day young and tall and strong.  As evening falls he is old, bent, crying, bleeding, and handicapped.  Finally, the ragpicker returns to the city dump where he climbs atop a mound of trash and dies - only to be raised to life on the third day.

"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...."

Prayer:  "Loving God, help me to be all you would have me to be, in Jesus' name.  Amen."