“I wish had someone to visit me, L. nurse!”
Leonard Daker raised weary, suffering eyes to the kind-faced nurse who was bending over him.
“Well, you never know,” site returned brightly, “you might even have some one to see you this afternoon.”
Five minutes later a visitor was chatting to Leonard as if they were old friends, and some of the burden of pain was lifted from the sufferer’s face as he realized that for the time being somebody else cared about him.
“I felt so lonely before you came,” he said, after a time, “and it sometimes seems as if the long days will never end, yet the nights are longer,” he added wearily.
“But it is worth putting up with all that to know that one day you will be well and strong again, is it not?”
“Well and strong!” The boy’s eyes closed, and there was a world of weary bitterness in his voice as he said quietly:
“No! I shall never be strong and well in this life, sir.”
“But what about the next?”
“The next? Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“My friend,” said the visitor, with a sudden change of voice, “as you look around this ward, what do you see?”
“Pain and suffering,” was the short reply.
“Yes, so do I. But I can see something more too, for there are kind nurses preparing all sorts of good things for you to enjoy when we have gone. You can see that now too, can’t you?”
“Yes,” replied Leonard wonderingly.
“And I,” continued the gentleman quietly, “can see beyond your pain to where the Lord Jesus Christ is preparing a Home for His children—those whom He has bought with His blood. Can you see that too, my friend?”
There was silence for a minute, then
the soldier, ignoring the question, spoke two words.
“Go on,” he said.
“But He is only preparing these joys for His children,” continued the visitor, “those who by faith have laid hold of His promises, and have accepted His gift of eternal life. He paid a heavy price in order to offer you this free gift. I wonder, laddie, have you accepted it?”
Again a silence, and before it was broken the bell rang, and visiting hours were over. The visitor rose to go, and as he rose his hand was suddenly grasped.
“Oh, if I never see you again, thank God you came here today, sir.”
They never did meet again, but surely they will know each other in that Home which Christ has prepared for those who love Him.
There was no mistaking what Leonard meant, for his face told the tale.
ML 07/05/1959