The Road to ChristmasSample

Rescuing Love

It was almost Christmas and I was nearing the end of my second year of nursing training. I was on duty and doing the admission work for a new patient who had come in for a minor surgical procedure. I had no idea how much this little elderly woman’s story would impact me.

During our conversation, I asked if she had any prior surgery. She gave a strange answer saying that ‘nature had amputated her toes’. Already tucked into the hospital bed, the woman pulled back the sheets to show me her stumped feet without a single toe. ‘How on earth did that happen?’ tumbled, unfiltered out of my mouth. What followed was a story of love. She had been in a concentration camp. Her friend had died, entrusting her baby to her loving arms to rescue her. The love for her friend drove her to escape, walking through the snow with her friend’s baby tucked against her chest. Her feet froze. She found a family who allowed her to hide and who took the baby to raise as their own. I wanted to ask more questions, but I realised the rest of this story was not a happily ever after story and it seemed wrong to ask for more than had been shared.

1 John 4:9–11 brings back this memory of a woman’s lived experience of a rescuing, sacrificial love. I hold it in my heart as a reminder of the love God has for us. Although I may never be given the task of loving another person with such sacrificial love, I learned that day that God’s love is stronger than fear, more motivating than physical pain, and very beautiful when offered for the sake of another.

Written by KATH HENRY

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