My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  John 15:12

Dr. Helen Roseveare was down at the brick kiln training a team of African workers to make bricks, when a nurse came and said she was needed for an emergency surgery.  Her hands were sore and bleeding from the brickwork, as she scrubbed up to deliver a baby by caesarian at the simple jungle hospital. A nurse poured antiseptic alcohol over her raw wounds and, anger welling up, she inwardly cried out, “God this is so stupid.  I wanted to be a doctor to help people.  Why can’t you send somebody else to the Congo to do the building?”

Later, as she joined the African team who ran the hospital with her for their weekly prayer meeting, she asked them to pray for her anger at the way God was doing things. “Dr. Roseveare,” one replied. “Don’t you realize that when you’re being a doctor with the white coat on and the stethoscope around your neck, we’re scared of you.  But when you’re down at the brick kiln talking with us in our tribal language and your hands are sore and bleeding like ours are, that’s when we listen to you, telling about the love of Jesus.”[1]

“Dear children,” says the Bible, “let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.” (1 John 3:18) The opportunity to love that is presented to you and me today might not be what we expected. Will we say yes to “making bricks?”

 

Resource reading: 1 John 3:16-18

[1] Meredith, David. “An Interview with Dr. Helen Roseveare.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij6hwPfKLPM.