Devotionals

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Christ---Nearer Than Hands And Feet
© 2006
by

Stephen A. Peterson


Shattered glass can be dangerous if a blasting device goes off. The broken glass pieces become flying objects that can penetrate the fragile human body rapidly. 20 year old Army Specialist Roberts (name changed) from Sweetwater, Texas, found this out when a suicide bomber detonated himself around shops built mainly of glass in Iraq. Following the blast, Specialist Roberts heard the cries of a young Iraqi boy who survived the blast. Rushing to the child, Specialist Roberts found a piece of glass had penetrated the boy’s throat, piercing the jugular vein. It was very clear that unless something was done immediately, the boy would bleed to death.

Specialist Roberts had no medical knowledge but he received very minimal first aid training for battlefield injuries. However, nothing prepared him for this kind of injury in a foreign land with the child’s family and neighbors watching this American’s are every move. Frighten and very scared, Specialist Roberts prayed an agonized prayer: “Dear Lord Jesus, please tell me what I am to do. I’m so scared for this boy and myself!”

Instantly, there flashed into his mind the vivid recollection of Army Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia during First Aid Training. As if on a television screen, he could see his Drill Sergeant instructing him that the main activity for him to accomplish is to stop the bleeding. He could also see a clear picture of the various pressure points that could be used to stop this child from bleeding to death. Encircling the boy’s neck with his hand, he pressed wit his thumb just as this extraordinary mental flashback instructed him to do. The child’s bleeding stopped immediately and Specialist Roberts continued to control it until Army Medical Specialists arrived to take over and get the child to a field hospital. The Iraqi child’s life was spared.

There are several things of significance about this extraordinary episode. First, daily in Iraq, American service members of every armed service performs acts of good will often at risk to their personal safety on behalf of the American and Iraqi people and without recognition from an extremely biased American media trying, in too many instances, to hurt the efforts of American service members in building a nation of free people in an attempt to destroy a President whom it hates because he professes to be a Christian.

Second, this event is clear proof that the Living Christ is with us always! That when we call upon Jesus Christ in times of crisis, He is there and He will answer the call. We cannot see Him, we cannot touch Him as humankind did more than two thousand years ago. However, He is “closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet” and beyond the intellect of humankind,” Thanks be to Almighty God!

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