|
My Son
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
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 an old 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 across that parking lot full of
folks, people are screaming and praying and laughing
and crying. But then the gray-haired doctor
pulls you and you 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 is empty.
"H-how many pints?" You ask....And that is when the
old doctor's smile
fades and he says, "We had no idea it would be little
child. We weren't prepared. We need it all!"
But-but...You don't understand." "We are talking
about the world here. Please sign. We-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 that old 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, "Dad? Mom? Dad? "Why, why have you
forsaken me?"
And then next week, when they have the ceremony to
honor your son, and
some folks sleep through it, and some folks don't even
come because
they go to the lake, and some folks come with a
pretentious smile and
just pretend to care. Would you want to jump up and
say, "MY SON DIED FOR YOU! DON'T YOU
CARE?" Is that what GOD wants to say? "MY SON DIED
FOR YOU. DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?"
Father, seeing it from your eyes breaks our hearts.
Maybe now we can
begin to comprehend the great Love you have for us."
|
