Giving Blood

Article by Kristin Thomas - Student Missionary in Chad, Africa

She was pregnant with appendicitis. Dr. Bond has done an appendectomy on her, which is very dangerous while pregnant. After surgery she just wasn’t recovering. She was in a lot of pain and looked so tired.

James decided to give her some more blood and take her back into surgery to see if he could figure out what was wrong, which was the reason I was giving blood.

That night, Ansley came into the middle house and said, “Guys, please pray for the little Arab woman. She’s just not doing good.” James couldn’t find what was wrong, and ended up taking her baby out to try to give her a fighting chance at life. We stopped to pray in a group right then, and Ansley went back to work.

As she left, I began praying silently to God; I was upset at the thought that this woman might die. “God please, let her live. I gave my blood for her; please don’t let it be for nothing.”

I stopped, astounded by the depth of what I had just prayed. How must Jesus feel? I can imagine Jesus pleading, praying the same prayer for me, “Father, please, I gave my blood for her. Please don’t let her go.” And then the thought went further. That’s how I feel about each of my children.

Each person that I come into contact with, is someone that Jesus gave His blood for, a gift that He doesn’t want to have been in vain. Whoa. Shouldn’t my prayers for their souls be just as earnest as my prayers for this Arab woman’s life? Shouldn’t I be doing everything I can to make sure that my Jesus didn’t give His blood for nothing?

All these thoughts have opened my eyes to the value of the people that I am working with here. And the value of every person in God’s sight. I thought about how upset, how sad I would be if I had given my blood to this Arab woman, and it made no difference. Then I realized that all I had was a needle in my arm for a few minutes to very cleanly “donate” my blood.

Jesus spilled His blood. It wasn’t a pretty, clean process. Jesus gave His blood to the point of death. How much more precious a gift to be wasted, and how much more deeply He would feel the loss if it made no difference in the life of someone He dearly loves. God help me to treat people’s lives with the value You place on them, let me see with Your eyes.