Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom once wrote about her trip to Soviet Russia many years ago to visit an elderly lady who was a Christian.

Corrie and a friend climbed the steep steps to her one-room apartment at night to escape detection by the secret police. At that time, anyone caught even speaking the name of Jesus faced a death sentence.

As they entered the back door, the old woman’s husband welcomed them. His frail wife was lying on a sofa, propped up on pillows, her body bent and twisted by multiple sclerosis.

Despite what the ravages of MS had done to her body, she had one finger she could control spasmodically. The woman’s husband, who lovingly cared for her each day, placed an old typewriter in front of her on a table.

Peck…peck… pecking with that one finger, she translated portions of the Bible, as well as books by Billy Graham, Corrie Ten Boom and Watchman Nee into Russian and Latvian. Corrie had come to thank her.

Looking at the woman with her head pulled down and feet curled back under her body, Corrie writes that she cried inwardly, asking why God didn’t heal her? The old man sensed her anguish and answered, “God has a purpose in her sickness. Every other Christian in the city is watched by the secret police.” He went on to say his wife had been sick for so long, they were left alone. She could type undetected.

This story gives us an inspiring example to follow. There’s something, however small, that each of us can do to lend a helping hand to someone else. Yet so many times many of us do not lift a finger to serve in our churches or volunteer for charitable organizations like the Meredith’s Miracles, Red Cross and Sav-A-Life.

Jesus said even giving a cup of cold water to a little one would be rewarded (Matthew 10:42). From His Words we get our Golden Rule, “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12 NKJ

Earlier this week, I noticed a portion of a scripture on the side of the Arkansas Baptist Disaster Relief’s vehicle, “For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink.” Matthew 25:35-36 goes on to say, “I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me” (NKJ).

Lending a helping hand takes time and money. Most of us have one of them, if not both. A few might only be able to pray for others. That’s important too.

As one former president said, “Here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.” Will you lend a helping hand in Jesus’ name?