A Sharp Knife, a Police Officer, and a Christmas Lesson

So, I cut part of my index finger off. A little life advice here: don’t do that, it hurts a lot. Among many other things, this has interrupted my blogging. Even as I type this, I keep making mistakes. Such is life. Fortunately, I have spell check.

Here’s the story: Our church decided to do a service project for Christmas. We made a beautiful Christmas dinner with all the fixings for the 150 police officers in our precinct that got stuck working on Christmas day. No evangelism, no preaching, just serving those who serve us.

While doing prep work for this dinner, I sliced about 1” x ½” off of the front of my index finger. I was chopping celery and missed where the green part stopped and the pink part started. A trip to the emergency room and half a dozen stitches later, everything came back together. It was interesting trying to preach the Christmas Eve service with this great big white bandage showing on my finger. That's not distracting at all. I thought about tying a red bow around it to make it blend in.

The part that I want to share today is the response to the dinner. We have had some police officers stop in our office to thank us for doing this. One officer said that he always feels forgotten on Christmas, no place is open to buy lunch and no one seems to care that the officers are there. Pretty sad.

The comment that really got me was made by a Lieutenant who said that he had been on the Phoenix Police for more than thirty years and no one had ever done something like that for him. He said, “As a cop, you just get used to the fact that everyone hates you.” I think that qualifies as one of the saddest things I have ever heard.

These men and women, for the most part, are doing a hard job that they love because they believe in it. They don’t get paid much and receive far too little respect from the society that they protect. This is something that needs to change. As a parent, I have brought my daughter up to respect and trust police officers and to understand why they are there. We all need to do that.

Let’s be honest, there are a few bad apples, lawmen who do bad things… But that is true of every occupation. That’s humanity. The truth is, policemen put their lives on the line every single day they go to work so that you and I don’t have to worry about carrying a gun around every second of the day to protect ourselves. They enforce traffic laws so that we can safely cross the street or drive to work without risking death every time. They save lives, risk their own lives, protect us, and make a difference.

Let’s treat them as they deserve, with respect and admiration.

Next time you get pulled over for speeding, be polite. Admit that you made a mistake (this means being honest with yourself too). Apologize to the officer for risking his life and yours just to beat that traffic light and thank him for his time.

Next time you see an officer at the mall, thank him or her for their service. If you see some officers at a restaurant, quietly talk to the manager and pay for their meal without letting them know who you are (but let the manager know to pass along your thanks). If you are part of a local church, how about doing the same thing we did and provide a Christmas Day dinner for those officers in your local precinct. Let’s recognize our modern knights-in-armor.

The lesson here today is this, love your local police officers or get your finger cut off!