Your work: walking on holy ground

(This is an excerpt from The Doctor's Life Support 2. If you have found this useful, I encourage you to obtain a copy for yourself from ICMDA at www.icmda.net.)

'... whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.' John 1:27

It was the feet that did it and to this day I still wonder why. As usual in the Emergency Room at the hospital in Nazareth, the day was busy, hot and long. I was tired and my meagre Arabic was straining me to the limit. There was a growing temptation to treat patients like lumps of meat. Perhaps that's why I only saw the feet. They were like thousands of others I'd seen: olive coloured skin inside leather sandals and caked all over with white dust. Vacantly I looked at the jeans covered in sawdust and cement; just another builder, or perhaps a carpenter. I was aware that he held up an injured hand, and as he awaited my full attention, one foot shifted; the leather strap mvoed slightly to reveal a paler skin that the sun had missed and sweat had washed.

That did it and I sat back astonished to look at the whole man. What left me speechless was that this black-haired local in his thirties, looking like thousands of others, could have been Christ - and I hadn't bothered to look him in the eye. There were no more lumps of meat that day, only people. Damaged masterpieces, made like the Master and deserving the highest honour and care. That Master once left heaven to wear out shoes in the real world. He has been both hard-pressed doctor and waiting patient.

Going to work today? Step softly, for you are walking on holy ground. Search each face and you will find something of the face of Christ. Treat each one as if you are treating him, and you will receive strength to do your finest work, in his name.

Matthew 25:40

   “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’