Kindness Won The Reading

A true story from the great war of an act of kindness that softened the heart of a hardened soldier.

______________________________________________

KINDNESS WON THE READING

THE LESSON OF THE KIND CHAPLAIN

     A chaplain on a battlefield came to a soldier who was badly wounded. The man was lying on the hard cold ground as snowflakes drifted down on his pale face. "Would you like me to read to you something from the Bible?" The chaplain asked.

     "No, thank you, I don't believe the Bible." The soldier whispered. "I would rather have a drink of water. I am so thirsty." The chaplain splashed through icy mud to a farmhouse. The water pump was frozen but he beat it with his fist until the handle swung free and then he pumped water into a jar. The icy water spilled over his hands and his fingers with stinging cold. When he returned to the wounded man the chaplain held his head us so he could sip the water. For the longest time, the man sipped and coughed until the water satisfied his parched thirst.

     Then the soldier said, "Would you put something under my head?" The chaplain took off his overcoat and rolled it up, and gently put it under the soldier's head for a pillow.

     "Sir," whispered the soldier, "I need something over me. I am so very cold." The chaplain took off his coat and spread it over the soldier. The cold was bitter and the chaplain shook without his coat or overcoat.

     "The wounded soldier looked gratefully into the face of the chaplain and said, "Thank you." Then he looked at the chaplain shivering in the cold and he added, "If there is anything in the Bible that makes a man do what you have done for me, you may read it to me."


(C)Adron Dozat