A POWERFUL MESSAGE - Subject: Flu
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. It's not influenza, but three or
four
people are dead, and
it's
kind of interesting, and they're 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 it's not
three villagers, it's 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, it's the
lead story. For it's not
just India; it's 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 it's borders, but it's
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 selling little masks for your
face.
People are talking
about
What if it come 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 in from
the
parking lot and says,
"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 wife and your kids are out here, 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
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-how 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 ... 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 the old doctor comes back in and
says," sorry, we've - 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!
DON'T
YOU CARE?" Is that what GOD wants to say?
"MY
SON DIED. 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."
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