RAISE PEOPLE UP!

RAISE PEOPLE UP!

I love the inspirational saga that is the life of Mike Marino.  It speaks of the need to forge genuine human connections.  It is an indisputable fact that TOGETHER, we are significantly greater than the sum of our individual parts.  Let’s tune in on a conversation between Mike and Marlene, a person who was offering to help him.  Read and listen with your heart.

I know that I was not sent to help you, Marlene.  You were sent to help me.  However you cannot help me, Marlene, unless I lift you up first, higher and higher.

Did I ever tell you about Emma, a little four-year-old girl that I met while doing volunteer work at the Crippled Children's Hospital in 1970?  Many women had taken a morning sickness drug called Thalidomide before it was officially approved by the Food and Drug administration.  As a result, numerous babies came into the world with profound birth defects.  Little Emma was born without arms and legs.

Many of these babies were brought to children’s hospitals all across America.  Since Emma had no other means of mobility, a caring therapist made a leather bucket for her to sit in.  The bucket was attached to an -eighteen-by-eighteen-inch board with casters on all corners.  Emma would wiggle her torso back and forth to propel herself forward in the hospital halls.

Emma was a cute kid who wore pink burettes in her pigtail hair.  She also wore a diaper and a white T-shirt, adorned with a bunny rabbit picture.

I was doing volunteer work and they put me in a room with all boys.  Each of those boys had serious disabilities from birth.

Emma rolled right up into the boys’ room.  One of the boys told me not to let Emma in because she was a girl.  I let her in the room any way and Emma made her way over to my ankle.

Then Emma said, “Mr. Mike, pick me up, I want to see what they are doing on the table.”

I told Emma, without looking down at her, “I cannot pick you up because I am not allowed to touch any of the children.”

The nurse that was observing the scene said, “You can pick her up, Mr. Mike.”

One of the boys shouted out, “No.  Don't pick her up, Mr. Mike, don't pick her up!”

I had no idea how I was going to get her out of the bucket.  But I put my knee on the board and managed to free her from the bucket.  Emma had a diaper on and I was afraid the diaper would come off.  I held Emma up for two seconds so she could see the model cars and coloring books on the table.

When I went to put her back into the bucket, Emma looked at me with big brown eyes and said, “Don't put me down, Mr. Mike.  I want you to hold me.”

I said, “I am holding you.”

Emma said, “I want you to hold me close, Mr. Mike!”

I said, “I am holding you close.”

Emma said, “No, Mr. Mike, you have to hold me real close.”

I pulled Emma close to me and Emma put her head on my shoulder.  She had one tiny finger growing directly out of the side of her shoulder, and underneath her T-shirt sleeve she pressed her little finger against my shoulder and said, “I love you Mr. Mike!”

I broke down and cried like a baby.  I could not stop crying.  The boy who said “Don’t pick her up” shouted out loudly, “I told him not to pick her up, and this guy just doesn’t listen!”

The nurse came over, brought me a box of Kleenex and took Emma away from me.  She smiled brightly and said, “You're going to bed young lady.  You’ve had enough fun for today.”

Little Emma was grinning and laughing out loud!

I told the nurse, “That little girl has a finger under her T-shirt sleeve and she pressed it against me.”

The nurse replied, “Mr. Mike, you are not the first person Emma has touched with that little finger and you will not be the last.”

In that unexpected moment, Emma had touched me and somehow transformed me into a caring person!

After that, God's grace was increasingly manifested in my life.  I become stronger and accomplished many things by the grace and power of God.  The reason I tell you this story, Marlene, is because Emma knew that I needed help really badly, but she could not possibly help me until I raised her up!

That’s what I do now, Marlene.  My purpose in life is to RAISE PEOPLE UP!  So now, nobody can begin to help me until I raise them up first.  

Thanks Mr. Marino!  I am inspired by your story and I love the positive theme you’re now living by.

In the optimistic words of Mike Marino, “This is going to be a good day, because I am going to make it a good day!  If I cannot see the bright side, I polish the other side that I can see.  Nobody is going to rain on my parade!”

Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET YOUR SOON COMING KING.  Maranatha!