The Gift of True Love
by J. John - January 2009
Jack Kelley, a reporter, tells the story of a trip to East Africa during which he learnt a valuable lesson.
Dear Friends,
Jack Kelley, a reporter, tells the story of a trip to East Africa during which
he learnt a valuable lesson. He was in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, covering
a terrible famine. The situation was so bad that as he walked toward the village
he was due to visit, he saw many people already lying on the ground dead. In
his retelling of the story he recalls how the smell of death is something that
gets into your hair, onto your skin and clothes, and takes a long time to wash
off.
As Kelley picked his way through the bodies strewn along the road, he came across a little boy. He could tell that the boy was severely malnourished; his stomach was protruding and his skin wrinkled as if he were a very old man.
The photographer travelling with Kelley had a grapefruit, which he gave to the starving boy. But the boy was so weak that he couldn't hold the whole grapefruit. And so they cut the grapefruit in half and gave it to him. He took the grapefruit, looked up at the two men as if to say “thank you” and began to walk slowly towards his village. The boy didn’t realise that the photographer and reporter were following him from a distance.
The boy entered the village and stopped at the side of a younger child, who lay at the roadside as if dead. His eyes were glazed over. He was the little boy’s younger brother.
The older boy knelt down next to his younger brother, bit off a piece of the grapefruit and chewed it. Then he opened his brother’s mouth, put the grapefruit in and worked his brother’s jaw up and down. The reporter and photographer later learned that the older brother had been feeding his younger sibling in this way for two weeks.
A couple of days later, the older brother died of malnutrition. But the younger brother survived.
That day, Jack Kelley and his colleague learnt what true love looks like.
I wonder if this is what Jesus meant when he said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13). The younger boy, saved by his brother’s unrelenting kindness and care, will never forget what it means to love and be loved. His older brother’s self-sacrifice will be etched on his heart forever.
Love causes us to do things for others that we would never have done before. Love enables us to give when it seems as though we have nothing left to offer. Love strengthens us, sustains us and emboldens us. Step out with Christ’s love in your heart today, and watch what He enables you to give away.
We began our healings meetings last Saturday with prayerful expectancy. Please pray for our second healing meeting this Saturday for the Healing Grace of Christ to embrace us. Do email your health concerns if you are unable to attend the meetings and we will pray for you.
Agapé
J.JOHN
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