An Act of Compassion
A few years
ago I read a neat story about a room service waiter who worked at a Marriott
Hotel. The waiter, a fellow named
Charles, learned that the sister of a guest unexpectedly passed away. Charles went to the gift shop, bought a
sympathy card and had all the hotel staff members sign it. Then he sent it to the room of the grieving
guest along with a piece of hot apple pie.
Some time
later the guest wrote a letter to the president of the Marriott Hotels. It said, in part, “Mr. Marriott, I’ll never
meet you. And I don’t need to meet
you. That’s because I met Charles. I know what you stand for…I want to assure
you that as long as I live, I will stay at your hotels. And I will tell my friends to stay at your
hotels.”
Just think
– because of the compassion of a lowly waiter, the Marriott Hotel chain now has
a customer for life!
Acts of
compassion are not soon forgotten.
Sacrifices made on our behalf by others always touch our hearts and melt
our souls. People like you and me should
know better than anyone the meaning of compassion. Every cross we see reminds us of the
compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the
joys of reading the Gospels is to see the compassion of Jesus in action. A man suffering from leprosy approaches
Jesus. He says, “Lord, if you are
willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus
replied, “I am willing. Be clean!” And immediately the man was cured of
leprosy. A widow makes her way through
the town gate to bury her only son.
Jesus sees her grief and sadness.
His heart went out to her and he told her, “Don’t cry.” Walking up to the coffin, the Lord places His
hands on it and says, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man came back to life. A mother and son are reunited.
These are
wonderful examples of the love and compassion of our Lord. Still, none of them compare with what Jesus
did for you and me at the cross of Calvary.
Is it not compassion that Jesus offers in taking our sins upon
Himself? Is it not compassion that Jesus
would become our substitute of sin and experience the pain and suffering we
deserve for our disobedience? Jesus saw
our need for a Savior and He did something about it. That’s compassion!
The
compassion of a room service waiter moved a woman to tell all her friends about
the Marriott Hotels. The compassion of
Jesus moves us to tell all our friends about the forgiveness and new life that
our Lord offers. As we share the Gospel,
Jesus makes friends for life, for eternity.
Sins are cleansed. Peace is
received. And another person is a
recipient of our Lord’s compassion.
To whom can you show the compassion of Jesus Christ this week?
