Sharing the Savior’s Story

News Too Good to Contain

One night, years ago, when I was serving my congregation in southwestern Minnesota, I was called to visit a parishioner in the hospital. I walked down the darkened corridor. Nobody was there except for the wonderful nurses on night duty. Suddenly and quite shockingly, a man I had never met before exploded out of one of the patient's rooms. That's usually not a good sign in a hospital.

Seeing my clerical collar, he ran up to me, although I imagine just about anybody would have been suitable at that moment. At any rate, he ran up to me, grabbed my shoulders and said, with a beaming smile, “She’s going to make it. She’s better. She is going to make it.” And having shared that news, he kept on going.

That’s it. He had good news, and it had to be shared. Never saw the man again. Don’t know the person he was talking about. I assume it was someone very special to him. I don’t have to guess that his good news couldn’t be contained. He had to tell somebody. He was ready to tell everybody.

Excerpt from The Lutheran Hour broadcast of: March 23, 2003