OT: Bearing Other's Burdens

[Guest guest]

I got this in my email today. It is so good, I just had to pass it along.

P

linda@...

" For I am confident of this very thing,

that He who began a good work in you

will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus "

Philippians 1:6

" BEARING OTHER'S BURDENS "

There are times that we are weak in ourselves, but when put to

the test find that we are of great value to someone else in need

of a helping hand, leg, or arms.

Bob lost his legs in a 1965 land mine explosion in

Vietnam. He returned home a war hero.

Twenty years later, he proved once again that heroism comes

from the heart.

was working in his garage in a small town in Arizona on

a hot summer day when he heard a woman's screams coming from a

nearby house. He began rolling his wheelchair toward the house

but the dense shrubbery wouldn't allow him access to the back

door. So he got out of his chair and started to crawl through the

dirt and bushes.

I had to get there, he says. It didn't matter how much it

hurt. When arrived at the pool there was a three-year-old

girl named Hanes lying at the bottom. She had been born

without arms and had fallen in the water and couldn't swim.

Her mother stood over her baby screaming frantically.

dove to the bottom of the pool and brought little up to

the deck. Her face was blue, she had no pulse and was not

breathing. immediately went to work performing CPR to

revive her while 's mother telephoned the fire

department. She was told the paramedics were already out on a

call. Helplessly, she sobbed and hugged 's shoulder.

As continued with his CPR, he calmly reassured her.

Don't worry, he said. I was her arms to get out of the pool.

It'll be okay. I am now her lungs. Together we can make it.

Seconds later the little girl coughed, regained consciousness,

and began to cry. As they hugged and rejoiced together the mother

asked how he knew it would be okay.

The truth is, I didn't know, he told her. But when my legs

were blown off in the war, I was all alone in a field. No one was

there to help except a little Vietnamese girl. As she struggled

to drag me into her village, she whispered in broken English, It

okay. You can live. I be your legs. Together we make it. Her kind

words brought hope to my soul and I wanted to do the same for

.

There are simply those times when we cannot stand alone.

There are those times when we need someone to be our legs, our

arms, our friend.

--Bob