Every path has its appeal, it is dotted with help and, sometimes, with unsettling lessons; it may hold what we could never have imagined, what we are, that is to say, a masterpiece of love within us!
Four years ago, when I was volunteering at a hospital, I met a little girl named Margot. She was suffering from a rare disease. Her only hope of recovery seemed to be receiving a blood transfusion from her five-year-old younger brother, who had the same disease and had developed the necessary antibodies to fight it.
The doctor in charge of the child reported the following:
The doctor explained the situation to the little brother and asked him if he would be willing to donate his blood to his sister.
I saw him hesitate for a moment before taking a deep breath and answering:
- Yes, I will do it if it is to save her.
During the transfusion, he was lying in a bed next to his sister and he smiled, as we all did, when he saw his sister’s color return. Then he paled and his smile faded.
He looked up at the doctor and asked in a trembling voice:
- Am I going to start dying right away?
The little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he believed he had to give all his blood to his sister to save her, so the doctor removed the IV and the child smiled.
It is not necessary to give everything, and we are not asked to die in the act of giving, but to live in the act of giving—yes, that is not a bad thing, not bad at all.
It is not the quantity that we need to measure, but the love that fills us in doing so is sublime and eternal…
Lollipop