When the late President Kennedy’s son Patrick, suffering from a lung ailment, was fighting for his life, his father went to see him in a part of the hospital specially cleared of all visitors. On his way there he passed an open door and saw two little girls, both of whom had been badly burned. He was so deeply affected by what he saw that he stopped to write a personal note to each child. Then, after several minutes he went to see his own son who died the next day.
The image of the world’s most powerful leader, taking time to care about two unknown children while his own son was dying, bears an uncanny resemblance to the message of the Gospel and illustrates God’s love for us. ‘This is real love,’ the Bible says, ‘not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.’