Just Hold My Hand

It's a date that is etched in my mind, April 26th...
Every year on this date...the memories come flooding back...
It's been 53 years now,
But the years have not erased the vivid memories
Of the accident that occurred when 30% of my body was burned.

My thoughts each year are mostly of gratitude...
Year after year I am amazed of the grace of God that was upon me...
I am alive...
All my skin grafts are under my cloths,
How my body healed so fast...
And on and on...

But today I am remembering and thanking God
 For the nurse in the ER who held my hand...
As they scraped off the dead black skin from my body,
She told me to hold her hand...
Her hand bore the scars of a nasty burn she had received in her life...
She told me this as I held on tight and tried not to scream too loud.

And somehow the comfort and grace that she had received from God through her accident
Was transferred to me as I held her hand, through my similar trail.

Thinking back to that night I see how 2 Corinthians 1:4, was manifested.
"He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in a painful trail. We can bring them into the same comfort that God has pored out on us"

Yes, holding that nurse's burned, scarred hand somehow eased the pain and fear of the moment!

Isn't it beautiful to see how God can turn our circumstances into good, by comforting us and allowing us to comfort one another.

And sometimes that comfort is just holding a hand...