They stood quietly, their hands, wrists, forearms and ankles covered with open, infected sores, each one a quarter- to a half-inch in diameter. It looked as if their skin were being eaten away by something. I thought as I hugged him, what bizarre disease is this? What could cause such horrible wounds?

But this couple, this man and woman, only have a social malady. One so hideous society sees them as scum - outcasts. These two are homeless and sleep where they can. And they'd spent the night in the dirt, near a nest of brown spiders. Each had been bitten nearly 20 times.

"Have you been to the hospital?" I asked. They just shook their heads. He handed me his prescriptions for soothing salve and antibiotics.

"They gave us these prescriptions, but we have no way to pay for them," he said. "She even begged - asked strangers - for money to help pay for them."

But she didn't receive the kindness of strangers: She was arrested for panhandling and taken off to jail, then turned out the next day. She was sentenced to 250 hours of community service. The judge didn't see her or her suffering or her festering wounds. Instead, he saw and was blinded by labels: homeless, dirty, ragged, scum. He missed the fact that this was a suffering human being who needed his help. Unseeing, he chose to teach her a lesson about bothering her social betters.

Heaping humiliation on top of misery to come, she must find $22 to pay her Salvation Army probation officer and an additional $7 to get her community service form. She can only dream of where this money will come from. But if she doesn't find it, and in all likelihood she won't, a warrant will be issued and she'll spend more than a weekend in jail.

So, they stood. And hoped that on Monday, two days away, that a social service agency would help them pay for their prescriptions.

But I wonder if the police officer's salary, the time it took to book and arrest her, would have covered the cost of needed medications?

Well, with today's costs, maybe if we threw in the jail's room and board?

Naw, it would probably even take the judge's salary. But if even this weren't enough, I'm betting that if we just added in the salary of the probation officer then we'd surely have enough for both their prescriptions. Or if that didn't quite do it, perhaps we could just deduct the $3,000 to $4,000 costs that she'll incur when jailed again because she can't do her 250 hours of community service? Enough imaginings?

I told them comfortingly, "Society sees you as bad, treats you like scum, arrests and forces you to live in complete degradation. Blames you for being homeless in our land of plenty and turns a blind eye to your misery."

But as I looked lovingly at these two sweet, mentally challenged and yes, alcoholic friends, I said, "Society got it wrong. A better way of seeing yourselves would be to reverse the image and see reality not from the top down but from the bottom up."

To me, that's how God sees society. Seeing things this way, it is not these two who are bad, but society that is very bad for not helping them, for turning a blind eye on their misery.

Perhaps to God, these two are loved, and it is society that he sees as lepers: outcasts from his kingdom. Maybe God sees everything upside down. If this is how God sees, than all your important activities, your wealth, your statuses, education, your church going and Bible study mean absolutely nothing to God. Buy your church a new organ or spot your minister or priest to a fine diner - again nothing. Those things are important to people, but not to God. It's how you treat the least of us - the truly weak and helpless - that God sees in your heart. And when you turn away in disgust from the beggar, then God may turn from you. What if, when you see a beggar as scum, that's how God sees you?

The next time you see a couple dressed in rags and covered with sores, stop and think: "These are my brothers and sisters. I've done this to them."

And if you have some money, consider sharing some with them. See them with love, and perhaps your eyes will open and you'll begin to see that His Kingdom is not some far off realm. But is here. Right now. Where you're standing. But our blindness keeps the doors shut. That was the end: but of course I got it all wrong, some right, but was mostly way off the mark: missed the target again.

And talk about sadness: I'd sent a copy of the above column around for comments. And the first comment came back from a minister, a Christian liberal, who just loved my Lesson so much, that he wanted to use it to justify his attack against the Christian right: Hey, I thought, he loves and poor and needy and then turns around and hates his neighbor. I've got many more Lessons to write. But always remember. I don't write these Lessons for you. I write them as a way to help me grow in my seeming never ending quest to learn to love God. And as a wonderful byproduct of this quest: I find myself loving people more and more.

For more articles like this, visit the Homeless Voice at http://www.homelessvoice.org.

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