"The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it."
It's a Wednesday night and you are at church when somebody runs in from the parking lot yelling, " Turn on a radio, turn on a radio!"
And while the church listens to a little transistor radio with a microphone
stuck up to it, the announcement is made: "Two women are lying in a Long
Island hospital dying from a 'mystery' flu." Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country.
People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is
working! California , Oregon , Arizona , Florida , Massachusetts
It's as though it's just sweeping in from the borders.
And then, all of a sudden, the news comes out. The code has been broken. A
cure can be found. A vaccine can be made but, its going to take the blood of
somebody who hasn't been infected, and so, sure enough, all through the
Midwest, through all those channels of emergency broadcasting, Everyone is asked to do one simple thing: Go to the nearest hospital and
have your blood type taken. That's all we ask of you. When you hear the
sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals.
Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that Friday
night, there is a long line, and they've got nurses and doctors coming out
and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it.
Your wife and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and
they say, "Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be
dismissed and go home."
You stand around, scared, with your neighbors, wondering what in the world
is going on and if this is really the end of the world.
Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He's
yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your son
tugs on your jacket and says, "Daddy, that's me."
Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy. Wait a minute! Hold on! And they say, "It's okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure.
We want to make sure he doesn't have the disease. We think he has got the
right type." Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses,
crying and hugging one another ... some are even laughing. It's the first
time you have seen anybody laugh in a week, and a doctor walks up to
you and says, "Thank you, sir. Your son's blood type is perfect. It's clean,
it is pure, and we can make the vaccine."
As the word begins to spread all over the world, people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying. Then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and your wife aside and says, "May we
see you for moment? We didn't realize that the donor would be a minor and we
need ....we need you to sign a consent form." You begin to sign and then you
see that the number of pints of blood to be taken has been left blank.
"H-how many pints?", you ask.
And that is when the doctor's smile fades and he says, "We had no idea
it would be a little child. We weren't prepared. I'm sorry sir, we need it
all!"
"But but .. You don't understand."
"We are talking about the world here. Please sign. We need it all!"
"But can't you give him a transfusion?"
"If we had clean blood we would. Can you sign? Would you sign?"
In numb silence, you do.
Then they say, "Would you like to have a moment with him before we begin?"
Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits on a table
saying, "Daddy? Mommy? What's going on?" Can you take his hands and say,
"Son, your mommy and I love you, and we would never ever let anything happen
to you that didn't just have to be. Do you understand that?"
And when the doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry, we've GOT to
get started! People all over the world are dying.
Can you leave?"
Can you walk out while he is saying, "Daddy? Mommy? "Father
why, why have you forsaken me?"
The meaning of this story is to remind us...
For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only begotten SON, that
whosoever (YOU) believeth in HIM should not perish but have everlasting life. JOHN 3:16.
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