(~) "DISARMED BY LOVE"
On Monday, August 9, 1993, a 31-year old woman, Sopehia Mardress White,
burst into the hospital nursery at USC Medical Center in Los Angeles,
wielding a .38-caliber hand gun. She had come gunning for Elizabeth
Staten, a nurse whom she accused of stealing her husband. White fired six
shots, hitting Staten in the wrist and stomach.
Staten fled and White chased her into the emergency room, firing once
more. There, with blood on her clothes and a hot pistol in her hand, the
attacker was met by another nurse, Joan Black, who did the unthinkable.
Black calmly walked to the gun-toting woman - and hugged her.
Black spoke comforting words.
The assailant said she didn't have anything to live for, that Staten had
stolen her family. "You're in pain," Black said. "I'm sorry, but
everybody has pain in their life....I understand, and we can work it out."
As they talked, the hospital invader kept her finger on the trigger. Once
she began to lift the gun as though she would shoot herself. Nurse Black
just pushed her arm down and continued to hold her. At last Sopehia White
gave the gun to the nurse. She was disarmed by a hug, by understanding, by
compassion.
Black later told and AP reporter, "I saw a sick person and had to take
care of her."
Jesus Christ looks upon us in a similar fashion, as persons sick and
broken inside, in need of his care. And it is his embrace that disarms us.
--Tom Tripp
Ninure Saunders aka Rainbow Christian
http://Rainbow-Christian.tk
The Lord is my Shepherd and He knows I'm Gay
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