A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.  "Your son is here," she said to the old man.

 She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened.  Heavily sedated because of his illness, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand.  The Marine started to speak to the nurse, but then grasped the old man's fingers, offering love and encouragement with his touch.

 The nurse brought a chair so the Marine could sit beside the bed.  All through the night the young man sat in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and rendering words of comfort and strength.

Occasionally, the nurse suggested the young man move away from the bed and rest awhile. He refused.  Now and then she heard the Marine say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, but held tightly to the caring hand.

Some time around dawn, the old man quietly died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding; he went to tell the nurse of the passing. While the nurse tended to the body, he waited.  Finally, she returned and started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.

 "Who was that man?" he asked.

 The nurse was startled, "He was your father," she answered.

 "No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life."

 "Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"

"I started to,” he said, “because I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son wasn't here. When I realized he was too sick to tell whether I was his son, my heart told me to stay.”

As we study the Bible and learn the lessons of kindness, compassion and love, please remember this wonderful story, and how you could really make a difference in a person's life. In this case, the serviceman, while not knowing who the poor dying man was, not only made a final difference in the poor man's life, but also made a difference in the nurses' life as well.