This is a story of a friend, Emmanuel was his name
But once I recognized the true him, everything I knew never remained the same
It all started when we were in college
Emmanuel was asked to help a deeply worried friend
Emmanuel said it was not his time yet & he was not prepared
But immediately a helping hand is what he lend
The next incident happened when we visited children poor and sick
All of us friends were trying to make the children smile,
Emmanuel went up the stage and gave a speech never heard
There weren’t any poor & sick children, hence, up to until a mile
One fine day, floods hit the village
Food was scarce & people did not even have blankets to pull
Emmanuel collected money and made sure everyone ate
The leftovers were 12 baskets full
Emmanuel was more than self-giving
He would go out of his bounds to help others
All the elderly, were his own parents
All the young, were his brothers
The last part came when a faraway village
Was caught in the clutches of a life threatening disease
Hospitalization of the patients was important
But they stayed at home due to unaffordability of fees
That’s when Emmanuel decided to take part in a race
So that he could win the cash prize
He would donate the entire amount to that village
He hoped that money would suffice
He trained very hard for the final run
He pushed his body to the extreme
He wanted that village to restore its health
At that point, it was his only dream
The day was initiated with a lot of music
The gun shot was fired by the host
All Emmanuel could see was the face of those villagers
And the money that they needed the most
In the last moments of the Final Lap
Emmanuel excelled and won the race
But the suddenly before he could stop for the rest
He fell and his heart just stopped its pace
There was something he never told us
His chest always experienced a lot of pain
Doctors had warned him that if he ever ran
He would fall to never rise again
I ran to him and comforted him
But by then his life had diminished
He had worry in his dying eyes for the sick villagers
He concluded saying “It is finished”
That is when I realized with my wide teary eyes
Those were Jesus’s last words
Suddenly time stopped and silence filled the air
One couldn’t even hear chirping from the birds
The feeding of the Hungry, The curing of the Sick
And of course the first miracle
He lived his life so that others could smile
He died for God’s own people
That village soon restored its health
They will remember him throughout their Life
They now call him God’s chosen one
Coz he served happiness while being pierced by a knife
I feel like that traveler, who, while Jesus was with him,
Did not have the slightest clue
The name “Emmanuel” means “God be with us”
It was the name of “The Jesus I Knew”
-Kenneth Savio Alex Fernandes
10-Jan-2012, 2:33 P.M.
