Another night on the acute ward of amazing grace

Boy this is a roller coaster. Another night on the acute ward with chemotherapy complications. There’s a steady flow of patients coming in from A&E and in the early hours the air is filled with bewilderment.

3.40 am. An elderly woman tries to take off ventilator setting off alarms and a lady opposite who starts crying that she wants to get out of here. Seeing my bald head rise blearily off the pillow she thinks I am a man called John and protests loudly about my presence.

Its a bit like trying to sleep in Picadilly Circus during rush hour. A gentle nurse with a laugh like liquid honey tries to say sorry. I tell her never to apologise.

Another nurse tries to clean the woman next to me who is rolling in her own filth. The woman shrieks ‘What are you doing to my body? Leave me alone’. The responding voice comes back with almost preternatural gentleness and, what I can only describe as, love as she patiently calms the storm, reaching out, cleaning and caring her protesting patient.

I imagined that if I had drawn back the blue medical curtain I would glimpse Jesus standing there elbow deep in her muck. Jesus who so readily touched the untouchable.

I am truly in awe of the true compassion in this place. The compassion of Christ. Not a distant sympathy delivered from some lofty height but mercy in all its messiness delivered by these wonderful people.

Kate Nicholas is a preacher, Christian author and broadcaster. Her best-selling memoir Sea Changed (shortlisted as Christian Biography of the Year 2017) is an account of her unconventional journey of faith and previous healing from advanced cancer.

Her books including the recently released Soul’s Scribe: Connecting Your Story with God’s Narrative are available at Christian bookstores and online at eden.co.uk, kooroong.com, Amazon worldwide.

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