Way before Johnson & Johnson started making the first commercial first aid kits in 1888, people were on their own when it came to gathering and maintaining the right supplies to use in treating injuries and in knowing how to help someone in case of an injury. This meant when someone was injured, someone would head out as quickly as possible to fetch the nearest doctor. The doctor was the only one trusted to treat the victim but unfortunatley critical minutes and sometimes hours passed without treatment for the injured person, and many times bystanders did more harm than good while trying to help.
One day Johnson & Johnson founder Robert Wood Johnson was on a Colorado and Rio Grande Railroad train, travelling out west on his way to a Colorado cattle ranch for some much needed vacation time. On this trip, he struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger on the train, the chief surgeon of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. He explained the challenge of treating injured workers due to the vast amounts of distance between when laying track in remote areas. Finding doctors in time was threatening the lives of these men.
The Solution
Johnson’s solution: to package some of the products Johnson & Johnson made – sterile gauze, bandages and dressings – in boxes. Those boxes could be kept with the workers so that, if they were injured, they could be treated and stabilized until they could reach more comprehensive medical help. Thus the first aid kit was born.
Exodus 15:26 reminds us that God is the great healer. This verse tells us to follow his decree (word) and he will heal us. Isaiah 53:4-5 also reminds us that through the blood of Christ and His sacrifice we are healed spiritually and through the Holy Spirit ( Matthew 28:19-20 ). Let’s use the First Aid Kit which Jesus has given us to treat the sick and ourselves which contain His word, blood and Holy Spirit.
Encouragement:
Jesus has equipped us with the First Aid Kit ( His word, blood and Holy Spirit ) we need to help the spiritually injured. We just need to use it.
Challenge:
What’s the importance in believing we are called to save the injured?
When will you start seeking and saving the lost? Just like in times before the first aid kits were developed, people are dying because there are not enough doctors around in time.
