“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again”

John 1)_17

In the early morning of Wednesday, the seventh of March, in the year of our Lord, twenty-twelve, they wheeled two sisters into surgery in a hospital in Dallas, Texas, USA. One was urgently in need of a kidney replacement. She had witnessed how life had become almost unbearable on dialysis. Only her faith and tenacity, through amazing grace, kept her alive. The other had two perfectly functioning kidneys and was in good health. She observed her sister suffer over time, and her heart went out to her. She was tough on her ailing sister, who sometimes seemed unreasonable. However, it was all motivated by love, and that is how it is.

When we love somebody, we stay close, trying to understand and advise, even if persistence, risks being viewed as, pestering. All because we hate to see people fall or fail. That is a characteristic of love, and it is godly.

Donation time came, and all the family tested. And guess who the perfect donor was? The tough sister! Yes, Carina! Without hesitation, she accepted the challenge. She welcomed the opportunity to “lay down her life” for Christine by giving her a second chance on life.

The scrutiny by health officials found no hesitation in the mind of Carina, nor could they detect any coercion from the family in her decision. She had yielded her heart to the noble cause of donating a life-saving organ, one of her kidneys, to save the life of her sister.

Sometimes, we talk big, promise big, claim big, and even swear big. But when the time comes for action, we flounder. It reminds me of Peter’s denial of Jesus (Mk. 14:29, 39). Maybe he had had too much food and wine at dinner. For, when the time came to stand with his Lord, Peter denied Him three times (14:66-72).

Carina did not fail Christine. Amid the anguished soul of a mother witnessing her two daughters going into surgery together, love filled the room. An anxious father in faraway Dakar, and their equally stressed siblings in the USA, the two sisters went in, smiling at each other, and knowing in their hearts, what was sending them under the surgeon’s knife—love.

O, the goodness, and kindness of God that never fails! He, who is love and is the definition of love, honored the demonstration of genuine love by Carina for Christine. And He glorified Himself. Within a short time after the transplant, the kidney of Carina had found a new home in Christine and produced urine. Isn’t God good? Why wouldn’t Christine love Carina? More so, why wouldn’t God love Carina for her selfless display of love for a sister in need?

That is what Jesus did for us on Calvary. He laid down His life for the salvation of we who so desperately needed blood transfusion (1Jn. 3:16). By that selfless act on the cross, Jesus endeared Himself to God the Father (John 10: 17). He commands us to love one another, as Carina did for Christine for the world to know we are His disciples (Jn. 13:34, 35).

Can you give your all, even your life, to let a dying world know that Jesus laid down His life to save and give us new life in Himself? (Jn. 3:16)