The View from the Vicarage - May 2009

A surgeon was awakened by a phone call at 2:30 one frigid winter morning. The nurse on the line explained that an eight-year-old boy had been hit by a car and was bleeding profusely. The attending physician had determined that unless the boy was operated on immediately, he would not survive.

The surgeon threw on his clothes and rushed out into the subzero weather. He scraped his car’s windshield just enough to be able to see where he was going and started the icy five-mile trip to the hospital. Each time he stopped at a red light he opened his car door and leaned out just enough to scrape a little more ice from the windshield.

At one intersection, about a mile and a half from the hospital, the surgeon noticed a man wearing a brown coat and an old green hat impatiently trying to cross the street. As the surgeon leaned out of his car, the man rushed over, grabbed him by his coat, and pulled him to the ground.

The surgeon tried to put up a fight but was no match for the burly, and apparently desperate, man. While the surgeon struggled to his feet, the man jumped in the surgeon’s car and drove away.

Unhurt, the surgeon hurried to a phone booth and called for a cab. Twenty minutes later he finally made it to the hospital. “Where’s the boy who was hit by a car?” he asked one of the nurses as he hurried through the emergency room. The nurse’s eyes welled up with tears. “We couldn’t stop the bleeding,” she said. “He died just a few minutes ago. His parents are still in the waiting area, if you’d like to speak to them.”

The surgeon took a deep breath and walked out into the waiting area. A woman in a long red coat was sitting in the middle of the room, sobbing silently into her hands. Behind her, a man stood with his hand on her shoulder. His head was bowed and his eyes were closed.

He was wearing a brown coat and an old green hat. (from Hot Illustrations)

The boy’s father, in his rush to get to the hospital, had pushed aside the one man who could have saved his son’s life. Many of us rush through life pushing aside ‘the Great Physician’, Jesus —the only one who is capable of giving us life. He alone can bring healing and hope to broken lives, broken families, and broken relationships.

Find out more about Jesus by joining us on a ‘Journey’ together. We’ll explore through the stories and journeys of others whether there is a spiritual side to us; if God and heaven exist, what they are like; whether the faith thing works in real life; whether God has real power to change things; and what it’s like to join in with his ‘journey’.

‘Journeys’ will run for 5 weeks beginning on Friday May 8th at 7.30pm at Wing Chapel, Littleworth Road, Wing, each evening beginning with a simple meal. For more details please contact me on the number below or Pippa pearce on 01525 633378 (it’s ok to just turn up on any of the nights, but it’s helpful if we have some idea of how many might be coming!)

Shalom

“How then, can they call on the name of the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? ... How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14-15).

Revd Derek Witchell
01296 682320