Tony Campolo tells of a time he was on on a landing strip just outside the border of the Dominican Republic in northern Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world. As Tony waited for his plane to arrive a woman came toward him holding a child in her arms. The baby’s arms and legs were stick thin, his stomach was swollen from malnutrition.

The woman held her child out and cried, “Take my baby! Take my baby! Please, mister, take my baby. If you don’t take my baby, my baby’s going to die. Take my baby. Please, take my baby!”

Tony tried to explain he couldn’t take the baby, tried to look away, but the mother kept appearing in his face “Make my baby your baby. Feed my baby. Take my baby to a hospital. Save my baby. Please! Please! Please!”

Tony’s plane finally arrived. A small plane, he ran across to board it. And the mother followed. “Take my baby! Take my baby! Take my baby!”

Tony climbed on board the plane, desperate to get away, but the woman wouldn’t let him go that easily. She ran to the side of the plane and banged on the door. “Take my baby, take my baby.” Til finally the plane pulled away and took off into the sky.

Halfway back to Haiti’s capital Tony was shamed by the words of Christ as recorded in Matthew 25:42-43, “I was an hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me”. That was Jesus he left behind.

Source: http://www.ozsermonillustrations.com. Reported in Tony Campolo, It’s Friday But Sunday’s Comin. (Word, 1985)