A Healing Sacrifice

A Healing Sacrifice

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13

Hayes was forty-five years old and in perfect health. He came in to see me one day and said, “I’m feeling tired and achy all over. I think I have the flu.”

“It’s the middle of summer, not flu season,” I said, “but let’s run some tests and see what’s up.”

His urine sample was dark, and I immediately knew that something was wrong. Blood tests confirmed what I feared—Hayes was in renal failure and needed immediate dialysis.

“What happened to my kidneys?” he said. “I don’t get it. I’ve taken good care of myself. I don’t smoke or drink, and I get plenty of exercise and sleep. I’m not under any stress at home or work, and until I came down with these symptoms, I felt great.”

I had to agree with Hayes. He was the picture of health and had nothing in his family history that would suggest kidney failure.

“By chance did you take any medication that isn’t in your chart?” I asked.

He looked puzzled. “No. I’ve only taken what you’ve prescribed for me, so it should all be in there,” he said. Then I saw a flash of recognition cross his face. “I took some leg cramp medication from my brother a couple of weeks ago. That wouldn’t cause this, would it?”

That one dose of quinine started a chain reaction that resulted in Hayes’s renal failure. The mystery was solved, but the consequences were severe. The journey ahead would not be easy.

We started Hayes immediately on dialysis while beginning the search for a suitable transplant donor. After six months, a donor was found, and Hayes received a new kidney. When I spoke with him in the hospital after his successful surgery, he said, “I feel better physically than I have in months, but it’s hard knowing that someone else had to die for me to live.”

“If you think about it, Hayes,” I said, “Jesus was the first person to offer up his physical body so that others could live. We are healed because of the wounds he suffered.”

“I never thought about it that way,” Hayes said. “I guess that whoever left me this kidney was following in the steps of Jesus.”

TODAY’S RX

Never take medication prescribed for someone else. The effects could be deadly.

Lord, your Word tells us that it was Christ’s suffering that brought us life. He had to be pierced and crushed for us to have healing. Thank you for the heart-wrenching sacrifice you made so that we could be made whole.