The day is over, you are driving home. You tune in your radio.
You hear a little blurb about a little village in India where some
villagers have died suddenly, strangely, of a flu that has never
been seen before. Its not influenza, but three of four people are dead, and its kind
of interesting, and they are sending some doctors over there to
investigate it. You don't think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from
church, you hear another radio spot. Only they say its not three villagers,
its 30,000 villagers in the back hills of this particular area of
India, and it's on TV that night. CNN runs a little blurb; people are
heading there from the disease center in Atlanta because this disease
strain has never been seen before.
By Monday morning when you get up, its the lead story. For its not
just India; its Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and before you know it,
you're hearing this story everywhere and they have coined it now as "the
mystery flu." The President has made some comment that he and everyone are
praying and hoping that all will go well over there. But everyone is
wondering, "How are we going to contain it?"
That's when the President of France makes an announcement that
shocks Europe. He is closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or any of
the countries where this thing has been seen. And that's why that night you are watching
a little bit of CNN before going to bed. Your jaw hits your chest when a weeping woman is
translated from a French news program into English; There's a man lying in a
hospital in Paris dying of the mystery flu.
It has come to Europe. Panic strikes. As best they can tell, once
you get it you have it for a week before you know it. Then you have
four days of unbelievable symptoms. And then you die. Britain closes its borders,
but its too late. South Hampton, Liverpool, North Hampton and it's Tuesday morning when the
President of the United States makes the following announcement:
"Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and
Asia have been canceled. If your loved ones are overseas, I'm sorry.
They cannot come back until we find a cure for this thing."
Within four days our nation has been plunged into an unbelievable fear.
People are talking about "What if it comes to this country"? And
preachers on Tuesday are saying "It's the scourge of God."
It's Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when
somebody runs if from the parking lot and yells, "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 the 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. It's 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 your downtown 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 spouse 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, Its 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 your wife aside and says,
"May we see you for a 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-h-h-ow many pints?"
And that is when the old doctor's smile fades and he says, "We had
no idea it would be a little child. We weren't prepared. We need it
all!" "But-but. . . .I don't understand. He's my only son!"
"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. Please, will you please sign?"
In numb silence you do. Then they say, "would you like to have a
moment with him before we begin?" Could you walk back? Could you
walk back to that room where he sits on a table saying, "Daddy? Mommy?
What's going on?"
Could 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." Could you
leave? Could 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 bother to
come because they have better things to do, and some folks come with
just a pretentious smile and just pretend to care.
Would you want to jump up and say, "EXCUSE ME! MY SON DIED FOR
YOU! DON'T YOU EVEN CARE? DOES IT MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?"
I wonder, is that what God wants to say?
"MY SON DIED FOR YOU!
MY ONLY SON!
DOES IT MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?
DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?"

This is how much God loves you!