Bob was indignant.  He demanded to know why she wasn't in a clinic.  But his friend explained that she was from the jungle and wished to spend her last days next to the river, where it was cool and familiar.

As Bob gazed at her, he felt such compassion that he got down on his knees in the mud, took her hand, and began stroking it.  Although she didn't understand him, he prayed for her.  Afterwards she looked up and said something.  “What did she say?” Bob asked his friend.

His friend replied, “She said, ‘If I could only sleep again, if I could only sleep again.’”  It seemed that her pain was too great to allow her the relief of rest.

Bob began to weep.  Then he reached into his pocket and took out his own sleeping pills – the ones his doctor had given him because the pain from his leukemia was too great for him to sleep at night.  He handed the bottle to his friend.  “You make sure this young lady gets a good night's sleep,” he said, “as long as these pills last.”

Bob was ten days away from where he could get his prescription refilled.  That meant ten painful and restless nights for him. That day his love cost him greatly. *

True love always costs.

When we were dying in our sins, God sent Jesus to our rescue (Galatians 1:4).  Jesus gave His life on the cross for our sins so that we might receive forgiveness and the gift of eternal life (Ephesians 1:7; Romans 6:23).

Our salvation came at a tremendous cost: the precious blood of Jesus.  Peter wrote to Christians: "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).  That degree of love should be wholeheartedly reciprocated by a thankful heart.

Won’t YOU respond to the great love of God and be saved through your trusting obedience?

-- David A. Sargent