A few years ago, I led the college class at the church we attended at that time. One Christmas, I got the wild idea that our group of ten or so should do something for someone else. We decided to go sing Christmas carols to sick children at one of the local hospitals.
On the surface, that can sound like a pretty good idea, and I'll go ahead and tell you that it is. But, before you go waltzing your group into the pediatric ward, you need to prepare yourself.
We thought we had a pretty good grasp on what we would encounter. We anticipated there would be some very sick kids there, and some about ready to head home. We didn't anticipate our encounter with one school-age girl.
In the course of our caroling, our contact with the pediatric ward asked if we would be interested in singing a couple of songs to a girl in the ICU burn unit. She had been the victim of a gasoline accident at her home a couple of weeks prior.
The nurse prepped us for what we should expect. The child had suffered critical, life-threatening burns over a vast majority of her body. Her entire body was wrapped in gauze and bandages. The only thing visible were her eyes and mouth. One's mind can only picture the scarred and burnt flesh that lay beneath those wrappings.
Only two of us could go into the room, while the rest of the group stayed at her door. A young lady from our group joined me in greeting the girl and her father inside her sterile room. The jump suits we had to wear seemed somewhat heartless, because you wanted to just hold this precious girl...to do something to relieve the situation.
My heart broke when we entered the room. Having worked in news media for several years, I knew what was going on with her body. I knew the chances for survival were minimal. The nurse confirmed that she could last a few days to a few weeks.
Because our time was limited, we were only able to offer a greeting, and our group sang a couple of Christmas carols. They appeared to touch the very soul of this girl who would never see her classmates and playmates again on this side of eternity.
A couple of weeks later, I read the story of this girl's death. My heart still breaks at the sadness of that tragedy. Even though we didn't know her, I believe we were able to minister to her in her greatest time of need.
But, I often wonder if we could have done more. We were all young adults who were inexperienced with life -- and death. I would've liked to have known if she knew Jesus. Perhaps that is why my heart still breaks for her. Perhaps that is why my heart breaks today for the hurting.
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