Hanging on to Hope

by Pastor Larry Sorrells, Rockville, Trinity UMC

The Christian author and pastor Joyce Hollyday wrote a story about a school teacher assigned to visit children in a large city hospital to help them keep up with their lessons while they are recovering. One day, she received a routine call requesting she visit a particular child. The teacher took the boy’s name and room number and was told by the teacher on the other end of the line, “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in this class now. I’d be grateful if you could help him with his homework so he doesn’t fall behind the others.”

It wasn’t until the visiting teacher got outside the boy’s room that she realized the room’s location was in the hospital’s burn unit. No one had prepared her to find a young boy burned and in great pain.

The teacher felt that she couldn’t just turn around and walk out. She entered the boy’s room and stammered awkwardly, “I’m the hospital teacher, and your teacher sent me to help you with nouns and adverbs.” This boy was in so much pain that he barely responded. The young teacher stumbled through his English lesson, ashamed at putting him through such a pointless exercise.

The next morning a nurse on the burn unit asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” As the teacher let out an outburst of apologies, the nurse interrupted her: “You don’t understand. We’ve been anxious about him. But ever since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back; he’s responding to treatment. It’s as if he has decided to live.”

Later, the boy explained he had completely given up hope until he saw the teacher. It all changed when he came to a simple realization. With joyful tears, the boy said: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a boy who was dying, would they?”

It’s a beautiful story that invites us to celebrate the gift of life even when all we see around us is pain, disappointment, and brokenness. On the other side of that pain, there is resurrection. It reminds us of what is possible when we have is hope. Despite what may be in the world around us, let’s hang on to our hope in Christ. Blessings.