The Pure One
[Author Unknown]

The day is over, you are driving home. You turn on your radio. You hear a little news item about a little village in India where some villagers have died suddenly, strangely, of a flu that has never been seen before.

Its not influenza, but three of four people are dead, and its kind of interesting, and they are sending some doctors over there to investigate. You don't think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from church, you hear a another radio bulletin. Only they say its not three villagers, its 30,000 villagers in the back hills of this particular area of India, and it's on TV that night.

CNN runs a little news item; people are heading there from the disease centre in Atlanta because this disease strain has never been seen before. By Monday morning when you get up, it's the lead story. For its not just India; its Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and before you know it, you're hearing this story everywhere and they have coined it now as "the mystery flu." The President has made some comment that he and everyone are praying and hoping that all will go well over there. But everyone is wondering, How are we going to contain it?

That's when the President of France makes an announcement that shocks Europe. He is closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or any of the countries where this thing has been seen. And that's why that night you are watching a little bit of CNN before going to bed. Your jaw hits your chest when a weeping woman is translated from a French news program into English; There's a man lying in a hospital in Paris dying of the mystery flu. It has come to Europe. Panic strikes.

As best they can tell, once you get it you have it for a week before you know it. Then you have four days of unbelievable symptoms. And then you die.

Britain closes its borders, but its too late. Southampton, Liverpool, Manchestor and it's Tuesday morning when the President of the United States makes the following announcement: "Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia have been cancelled. If your loved ones are overseas, I'm sorry. They cannot come back until we find a cure for this thing."

Within four days nations have been plunged into an unbelievable fear. People are talking about "What if it comes to our country"?

Its Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when somebody runs in with a small radio and says "Listen to the radio, listen to the radio!" And while the church listens to a little radio with a microphone stuck up to it, the following announcement is made. Two women are lying in a Manhatten hospital dying from the mystery flu. Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country. People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is working. California, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts. It's as though it's just sweeping in from the borders. And then all of a sudden the news comes out. The code has been broken. A cure can be found. A vaccine can be made. Its going to take the blood of somebody who hasn't been infected and so, sure enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of emergency broadcasting, everyone is asked to do one simple thing: Go to your downtown hospital and have your blood type taken. That's all we ask of you. When you hear the sirens go off in your neighbourhood, please make your way quickly, quietly and safely, to the hospitals.

Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that Friday night, there is a long line and they've got nurses and doctors coming out and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it. Your wife and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and they say, "wait here in the car park and if we call your name you can be dismissed and go home." You stand around, scared, with your neighbours, wondering what in the world is going on and if this is the end of the World.

Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He's yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your son tugs on your jacket and says," Daddy, that's me." Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy. "Wait a minute. Hold on!" And they say, Its okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want to make sure he doesn't have the disease. We think he has got the right type.

Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses crying and hugging one another - some are even laughing. Its the first time you have seen anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and says, Thank you sir. Your son's blood type is perfect. Its clean, it is pure, and we can make the vaccine. As the word begins to spread all across that car park full of people, people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying. But then the grey-haired doctor pulls you and your wife aside and says, "May we see you for a moment? We didn't realise that the donor would be a minor and we need.....we need you to sign a consent form." You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken is empty. "H-h-h-ow many pints?"

And that is when the old doctor's smile fades and he says, "We had no idea it would be a little child. We weren't prepared. We need it all!"

But-but . . . . I don't understand. He's my only son!"

"We are talking about the world here. Please sign. We . . .we need it all!"

"But can't you give him a transfusion?"

"If we had clean blood we would. Please, will you please sign?"

In numb silence you do.

Then they say, "would you like to have a moment with him before we begin?"

Could you walk back? Could you walk back to that room where he sits on a table saying, "Daddy? Mummy? What's going on?"

Could you take his hands and say, "Son, your mummy and I love you and we would never ever let anything happen to you that didn't just have to be. Do you understand that?"

And when that old doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry, we've got to get started. People all over the world are dying."

Could you leave? Could you walk out while he is saying, "Dad? Mum? Dad? Why . . . why have you left me?"

And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honour your son, and some people sleep through it, and some people don't even bother to come because they have better things to do, and some people come with just a pretentious smile and just pretend to care. Would you want to jump up and say, "EXCUSE ME! MY SON DIED FOR YOU! DON'T YOU EVEN CARE? DOES IT MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?"

I wonder, is that what God wants to say? "MY SON DIED FOR YOU! DOES IT MEAN NOTHING? DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?"