Passing the sugar

After three years of solitary confinement Wurmbrand was close to death. He was spitting blood as a result of tuberculosis. He was told that he had only about two weeks to live. He ended up in a room containing twelve beds filled with people who were expected to die.

Scores of men did die during the thirty months that Wurmbrand lay in that room. But none of them died an atheist. None of them died without making their peace with God and men. Room four became an inspiring place of faith.

At one stage a prisoner received a twisted piece of paper. It was a gift that had been smuggled into the prison for him. As he unwrapped this they saw they it was two lumps of sugar. None of the prisoners in that room had seen sugar for years. Their bodies craved it. Slowed the prisoner wrapped up the sugar again. ‘I shall not eat it yet. Someone might be worse off than I during the day.’ He placed the lump beside his bed.

A few days later Wurmbrand’s fever increased and he became very weak. The sugar was passed from bed to bed until it arrived with him. But Wurmbrand did not eat it in case someone would need them more than him the next day. For two years that sugar went from man to man in room four and each time the sufferer refused to eat in case it was needed by someone worse off. That is brotherly love!