Throughout Holy week we have been reading about Christ's final meal with his disciples, when he blessed the bread and wine for the last time. Then on Good Friday we followed the final moments in his life after he was crucified, we now celebrate Easter, with him rising from the dead and appearing from the tomb.

A nurse escorted a tired, anxious young man to the bedside of an elderly dying man. "Your son is here," she whispered to the patient, he was heavily sedated but he reached out his hand and clasped the young man's hand and squeezed it. The nurse brought a chair and placed it next to the bedside and all through the night the young man sat holding the hand of the dying old man and offering gentle words of comfort, the dying man said nothing, but held on to his son's hand. As dawn approached, the patient died and the young man gently placed the lifeless hand onto the bed and went to inform the nurse.

While the nurse did what was necessary, the young man waited. When she was finished her task, she approached the young man and began to say words of sympathy but he interrupted her by asking, "Who was that man?" The startled nurse replied, "But I thought he was your father." No, he was not my father," he answered, "I never saw him before tonight." "Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?" asked the nurse. He replied, "Because he needed his son and his son just wasn't there. Then I realised he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, but I knew just how much he needed someone at that moment."

Wouldn't it be marvellous if we all followed Christ, for no other reason but that he needed us.

Wishing all my readers a happy, Holy and Blessed Easter.