I walk through this intersection almost every day.  This is the corner of Avenue Road and Bloor Street, here in downtown Toronto. I never tire of this sight:

You’ve been in this neighbourhood with me already. As I’m taking this photo, behind me is… the Mothership! Here, let me do a 180.

And to the right of me is the bikerack!

Are you all oriented now?

Okay, turn back to the church.

I wonder if the people who walk through this intersection even notice the church anymore. The business people, students, tourists.

“The church is being swallowed up by modern culture.”

“No, no, the church is steadfast and God is present even in the midst of the busy-ness of our hectic lives.”

What’s your take?

Just like with The Mothership, I love the juxtaposition of old architecture coupled with new.

This church is called ‘Church of the Redeemer’. It’s an Anglican church and their first worship service was held in 1871.Wouldn’t you just love to see what the neighbourhood looked like back then?

What?! You would?

Yay! Because look:

from a postcard on wikimedia.org

That was circa 1901. Wow, eh?

These days, there’s a sign in front of the church, and they put quotes on the sign, for passers-by to take note. I’m not sure why they never quote from the Bible, but of course that’s not to say the quotes are not of value. One of my favourites that I’ve seen on their signboard:

Don’t waste time bothering whether you love your neighbour. Act as if you did.  – C.S. Lewis

In Toronto we have so many opportunities every day to love our neighbour. Today I was given the chance to do so. See the red taxicab in the picture above? Right behind it is a hot dog cart with a striped roof. See it?

This afternoon I was rushing through this intersection from the language school to a private lesson at the Metro Library. I had my earphones in and was listening to music while at the same time checking my email on my phone. I heard this yelling through the music and got distracted. I saw this unkempt, middle-aged man pacing back and forth at the corner, yelling to people in general and basically to the whole intersection, “I want a hotdog!! Will anyone buy me a HOTDOG?!” I noticed people watching him and wanting to buy one – you can tell in the way they linger – but people are shy about it. So I went up to him and said, “Okay, I’ll buy you one.”

“Thank you, Miss”, he said, and we made our way over to the cart. I ordered a hot dog for him (at that cart in the photo).

“Can I have a drink too,” he asked, as he eyed the array of pop cans in front of the grill.

“Of course,” I replied, kind of impatiently. My mind was on the student who might be waiting for me.

“Where are you going after this?” he asked.

“Yonge and Bloor,” I told him.

He thought for a moment, then asked boldly, “When you walk past Starbucks, can you buy me a yogurt parfait?”

Hahahaha! I said, “No, sorry… not today.” I paid for his hot dog, wished him a good day, and went on my way.

Like a friend of mine said on Facebook, “You just gotta LOVE that he knows that if you don’t ask, you sure as shootin’ never get.”