I once heard of a school teacher who gave up teaching to work in a hospital. A classroom teacher asked her to go and visit one of her students in the hospital and help him with his homework. “We are studying nouns and adverbs,” she said, “and I hope you can help him.”
She was dismayed to discover that the boy was in the hospital’s burn unit in very serious condition and in great pain. She was embarrassed when she walked into the room and saw him in a state of misery, but decided to press on and stumbled through the lesson, ashamed of herself for putting him through such a senseless exercise.
The next morning the nurse on the burn unit said to her, “What did you do to that boy yesterday?” Before she could get out her apology, the nurse said, “We had given up on him, but ever since you visited him, he seems to be fighting back, responding to treatment.”
The boy himself later explained that he had given up hope, but it all changed when he had come to the simple realization that they wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?*
Even when the darkness swallows everything, hope keeps its power. Jesus will call your name, in a way that you may not recognize at first, but when you turn and see him…
You will know…
you will believe.
When you turn and look at Jesus, not even death can hold down hope.
*Story from: Joyce Hollyday, “Wayfare,” Sojourners 15, no.3 (1986): 19.
She was dismayed to discover that the boy was in the hospital’s burn unit in very serious condition and in great pain. She was embarrassed when she walked into the room and saw him in a state of misery, but decided to press on and stumbled through the lesson, ashamed of herself for putting him through such a senseless exercise.
The next morning the nurse on the burn unit said to her, “What did you do to that boy yesterday?” Before she could get out her apology, the nurse said, “We had given up on him, but ever since you visited him, he seems to be fighting back, responding to treatment.”
The boy himself later explained that he had given up hope, but it all changed when he had come to the simple realization that they wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?*
Even when the darkness swallows everything, hope keeps its power. Jesus will call your name, in a way that you may not recognize at first, but when you turn and see him…
You will know…
you will believe.
When you turn and look at Jesus, not even death can hold down hope.
*Story from: Joyce Hollyday, “Wayfare,” Sojourners 15, no.3 (1986): 19.
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