Can God be found in a bag of Pears?

This evening, having just returned from a nice walk around the neighborhood, an older gentlemen and his little chubby dog came walking up to our front porch.

This man has been living just a few doors down for about 3 months now. He lives with his daughter and her husband, his clothes are a least 2 sizes too large, his dog's body collar is at least 2 sizes too small (too many scraps under the table). He walks his dog a few times a day, but limits the walk to about 5 or 6 houses. His shoes barely make it off the ground, thereby scuffing his shoes all the way up and down the street.

If I'm outside, and I see him walk by, I say hello but can't get much more across to him because he is hard of hearing and his little dog likes everyone on the street to know of his presence by loud, yappy, barking.
We usually have this encounter at least once a week. Today, however, ended a little differently.

As he made his way back down the street, he walked up to the porch, and asked if we go to a church. My initial response was a learned response from my days living in the Bible Belt of the South when people would pull over on the side of the road and ask me if Jesus Christ is my Savior: "I don't know you, you don't know me, therefore my personal private relationships are non of your business."

I looked at the little old man and his yelping dog under his feet, and realized that he wasn't intentionally trying to offend me. "No," I said. "For very personal reasons." I said this hoping that the word "personal" would give him the respectful out. Unfortunately this retired Baptist preacher was not about to allow that to be the end of the conversation. "If you go to bed tonight, are you ready to die?" " Will you go to heaven?" WHAT??? Does this guy know something I don't? Has he set some explosives in my backyard or what?

Now I have a real problem with people just walking up to another, usually a complete stranger, asking questions regarding some of the most personal and private matters a human being has. To me its like walking up to a complete stranger and asking, "When you go to bed tonight will you wake up sexually fulfilled?" Most people would look at me like I was crazy, tell me to bleep myself, and possibly smack me across my face. Why? Because its non of my business. Then why is it okay to ask such questions regarding God, salvation, and religion? Do people feel this insatiable need to bugger themselves into others lives? Do they get some sort of high from feeling morally superior because they already know the answers to their own 20 questions? Or do they really feel that they are in some way trying to spread the Word?

I looked at this man barely able to stand, and saw that he truly felt that he was trying to share his love of God. He seemed a caring and thoughtful man, but I felt a bit stonewalled. Generally, this brings out the defensive in me. Although I felt his attempt was a bit misguided, it appeared that he was honest in his request. "Thank you for your concern, but I am very happy where I am," I politely replied. He offered to take us to church with him, I declined. He slowly turned away, little chubster still yapping at me, and began his journey back down to his house. I felt like I wanted to reach out to him, but words had left me.

Part of me feels bad that that was the first real conversation we had. How will this taint future discussions? Will there be future discussions? Will there be this large brick wall we will have to look through in order to share words again, or just a big elephant?

Maybe I will offer a bag of recently picked pears to him. Nothing like sweet, fresh, juicy pears to get conversation going. After all, God is in the details. God can be found in a bag a pears, can't He?