Chaplain Robinson shares a true story about his grandmother that took place in 1949. His father had just returned home from World War II.
On every American highway, you could see soldiers in uniform hitchhiking home to their families, as was the custom at that time in America.
Sadly, the thrill of his reunion with his family was overshadowed by the illness of Robinson's grandmother.
The problem was her kidneys. The doctors told Robinson's father that she needed a blood transfusion immediately or she would not live through the night.
With his grandmother's blood type being AB negative, a very rare type of blood even today, but even harder to get back then because there were no blood banks or air flights to ship blood.
None of the family members had matching blood. So the doctors gave the family no hope of her surviving through the night. Robinson's father left the hospital in tears to gather all the family members so they could say "Good-bye" to Grandmother.
As Robinson's father was driving down the highway, he passed a soldier hitchhiking home to his family.
Deep in grief, the father had no inclination to do a good deed at that moment. Yet, he felt strongly impressed to stop and pick up the stranger. Robinson's father was so upset that he did not ask the soldier's name. The soldier, however, noticed the tears in his eyes and asked what was wrong.
Through the tears Robinson's father told this stranger about his dying mother in the hospital because they could not give her a transfusion of AB negative blood because they did not have any. She would be dead by morning. It got very quiet in the car.
Then this unidentified soldier extended his hand out to Robinson's father with the palm upward.
Resting in the palm of his hand was his army dog tags with his blood type engraved on them, AB negative. The soldier told Robinson's father to turn the car around and get him to the hospital where she was given a transfusion of this man's blood.
Robinson's grandmother lived until 1996, 47 years later, and to this day no one in the family knows the soldier's name. Robinson's father wonders if he was a soldier or an angel in uniform.
Sometimes we never know who God will bring into our lives to carry out a special mission nor do we know whose lives the Lord will have us touch and bless.
