The burn is less than two seconds as the shiny slim steel needle skillfully stealthfully slips though my skin into a vein. A burst of red rushes into the clear tube then turns pink and then clear as the life-saving fluid flows into my hungry body. The bottle hangs over my head as its contents became part of me. Antibodies, battling antibodies will seek and destroy any foreign life they find. Only my cells will they ignore. Antibodies from over twenty thousand other people will course through my veins battling to keep me alive.
Tonight I am alive. Tomorrow night I will be alive. For the next thirty days I will be alive until once again that shiny slim steel needle will once again tear through my skin in search of a vein. For five years now this has been my ritual. For five years now I live because of the wonders of modern medicine. For five years now I am in debt to the thousands of people who share their antibodies that I can continue to celebrate life with my incredible wife, sons and grandchildren and write to you about the love of our Creator God who gives us knowledge of that wonderful thing He made that Friday in His very image.
Someday I will no longer need that shiny slim steel needle. In I Corinthians Paul promises that this corruption will put on incorruption, this mortal shall put on immortality and I along with you and millions others will exchange this form for an eternal tribute to His love. But until that day I shall write to you about the grandest God who ever could be – for He is the one who made Himself poor by giving us His only Son so shiny slim steel needles will only be a memory.
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 28, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org