The Gift of Life

March 3

The Gift of Life

Three times a month, Jermaine Washington and Michelle Stevens got together for what they called a “gratitude lunch.” With good reason. At 25, Washington donated a kidney to Stevens, 22, whom he described as “just a friend.” In fact, theirs was Washington Hospital Center's first "friend-to-friend" transplant.

They met at work where they used to have lunch together. One day Michelle wept as she spoke about waiting on a kidney donor list for 11 months. Family members couldn't or wouldn't be donors. She was being sustained by kidney dialysis, but suffered chronic fatigue and blackouts and was plagued by joint pain.

Then Washington made his extraordinary offer.

"I saw my friend dying before my eyes," Washington recalled. "What was I supposed to do? Sit back and watch her die?

One customer at Jake's Barber Shop asked Washington where he had found the courage to give away a kidney.

"I prayed for it," Washington replied. "I asked God for guidance and that's what I got."-- Anonymous



There are stories told of wealthy people in some parts of the world who kidnap victims solely to obtain a needed body part and then return them to their families--with financial remuneration--after the part is secured.

Perhaps ‘friend-to-friend’ transplants have also occurred in those parts of the world but the stories of them have not been told, possibly because of the belief in some cultures that dire experiences befall those who have incurred God’s wrath. Donating a body part might be construed as usurping God's will.

Believers in Christ cannot subscribe to that theory because His immutable Word tells us, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23, and, “God is no respecter of persons,” Acts 10:34. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 5:45, “The rain falls on the just and on the unjust; the sun shines on the just and on the unjust.”

This life isn’t our place of judgment. This life isn’t where everyone gets what he’s ‘due.’ In fact, the exact opposite may be understood from the passage where Paul writes, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus,” Romans 6:23.

Lest we become prideful because of our seeming humanity toward our brothers in their plight; lest we become secure in our righteousness in our own eyes, let us be mindful of the pervasiveness of sin among men in general and within ourselves in particular.

In John 19:11, Jesus suggests that some sin is greater in God’s eyes than are other transgressions. Here He says, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you; the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

The question might be posed of the two men of whom Jesus was speaking—Pontius Pilate who condemned Jesus to be crucified and Judas who betrayed Him—as to which man had the greater sin.

Yet, we, as they, will stand before God to be judged. We, like those who could not see the Shining Character before them, will be judged on what we have done with Him.