The Art of Caring

Mr. Alter’s fifth grade class at Lake Elementary School in Oceanside, California included 14 boys who had no hair. But only one had no choice in the matter.

Ian O’Gorman was one of Mr. Alter’s 5th grade boys with no hair. In the spring, Ian was undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma. The brutal medicines were so harsh that he began to lose his hair. First, his hair loss was gradual. Then it began to fall out in small clumps. A little later in his treatments, he woke up in the mornings to find larger tuffs of blond hair covering his pillow. That’s when Ian went to his barber to get his head shaved. The next day the other 13 boys in his class went to their barbers and got their heads shaved too. They did not want Ian to feel alone and out of place with his shaved head.

Ten-year-old Kyle Hanslik started it all. He talked to some of the other boys and, before long, they were all at the barbershop getting their heads shaved. In an interview, Kyle said, “The last thing Ian would want is to not fit in – we just wanted to do something to make him feel better.” His classmates could not cure his cancer; they could not eradicate the lymphoma from his body, but they made him feel better.

The Apostle Paul instructs us in the book of Galatians, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Jesus Christ.” The law of Christ reminds us, “to love our neighbor as our self.” We are also reminded that, “The GOD of all comfort comforts us in all of our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort which we have received from GOD.” (2nd Cor. 13-4). In Mr. Alter’s 5th grade class at Lake Elementary School of Oceanside, California, those students showed us the art of caring as they demonstrated a new way to carry someone’s burden. There are other ways, like sitting in a funeral home and visiting with a grieving family. Sending cards and notes to neighbors shut in their homes by illness is a way we can show care. Then there is the way the late Sam Rayburn, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, showed the way he cared.

Sam Rayburn heard that the daughter of one of his friends was critically injured in a traffic accident far from home. Early the next morning, Mr. Rayburn went to his friend’s house and knocked on the front door. He said, “I just came by to see what I could do for you.”

The father replied that there was really nothing anyone can do – all we are doing is waiting.”

“Well,” Rayburn said, “have you had your morning coffee yet?”

The man shook his head saying that they just had did not feel like making breakfast.
“Well, then,” Rayburn said, “I’ll make some coffee for us.” With that, Rayburn went to work in the kitchen. While he was working in the kitchen, his friend asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be having breakfast with the President at the White House this morning?”

“I was,” Rayburn said, “but I called the President and told him I had a friend who was in need and that I could not come to the White House this morning.”

We can make a big difference in our world by acting more caring toward others. We can make a difference to our community if we take time to be with people who are in pain. We can have an impact on someone’s life by just taking time to be with them.

One cold Chicago night after a basketball game, Chicago Bulls’ super star, Michael Jordan, headed through a large crowd of fans toward his waiting car. As he opened the car door, Jordan noticed a youngster in a wheelchair some 20 feet away. The boy’s neck was bent at an unnatural angle; his eyes could not look directly forward. Jordan walked over to the boy and knelt down beside him. The youngster was so excited that he began to rise up out of the wheelchair. Jordan comforted him, talking softly to him, while putting his arm around the boy’s frail shoulder.
The boy’s father tried to snap a picture, but the camera did not work. Jordan noticed. Without being asked, he continued to kneel at the boy’s side until the father was able to take the picture. Only then did Jordan slowly rise and return to his car.

The boy’s eyes were glistening with tears. His dad was talking with his son about how Michael Jordan took time to come over to him. If nothing else, that boy will always remember the night Michael Jordan cared enough to include him in his world.

Is there someone you need to make time for and include in your world? How can you help to bear someone’s burden and so fulfill the law of Christ? And when we do, we can Jesus whispering in our ear, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”