थे Greatest Prize On Earth

The Greatest Prize On Earth

The greatest prize is not the Nobel Prize and it is not the Oscar.
No, it is not the Grammy or the Emmy. It is not the Cannes Palm d’Or and it is not the Leone d’Oro of the Biennale Venice. It is not the Booker or the Pulitzer.
In fact, the greatest prize is the most precious, yet the commonest prize of all, and it is priceless. It is more precious than silver and gold. It cannot be bought or sold. Yet, it is the most abused, misused, violated, and wasted on earth. As I have since realized that the bottomless is fathomless, such is the depth and the worth of this prize.

The world froze before my very eyes yesterday morning. And this was not the first time, but the last time was over ten years ago. The memories still linger on my mind and I never wished to go through the flames of the crucible again. But yesterday morning I gazed at it eyeball to eyeball as my younger sister and the only daughter of my beloved mother collapsed and was foaming in the mouth.
Her eldest daughter Bombom had raised the alarm, as she was about to leave for school. Her only son in Kindergarten was sobbing and crying, “Mommy, come now.” The boy is only five years old. He must have been confused to see his mother slumping and jerking.
“Uncle, come and see mommy!” Bombom screamed.
Her mother was in the bedroom and I rushed inside to see her slumping over the bathtub with a small pair of scissors in her right hand. She was not having her bath and she was fully dressed in her house clothes. She was jerking with seizure and collapsing. I shouted her maiden name and raised her up. She collapsed in my arms and foaming in the mouth with her teeth about to clench and she could bite her tongue. So, I quickly put my forefinger in-between her teeth as she gritted them. The daughter was panicking in fear and trembling.
“Call the emergency number!” I shouted.
She was nervous and forgot that the emergency numbers were already pasted on the handset.
“Bombom! Hurry! Call 1007! And tell them that there is an emergency! That your mother has collapsed!”
“Oh, my God! Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord!” I exclaimed at the frightening sight of my sister.
Only God could save her now.
Bombom frantically called the number and I could hear her answering questions. She is only 10 and in such a state of shock, she could not say much.
“Jesus, please save my sister’s life! Do not let anything happen to her!Jesus! Blood of Jesus. Jesus have mercy on my sister. She is your daughter. Oh, God! Save your daughter’s life!” I was shouting my SOS prayer to the only one I could call to save her life now.
“Go and call any of our neighbours in the next house!” I shouted.
She ran and soon returned with Uluoma, a girl in her late teens, who is staying with her family.
“Please, call the hospital for an ambulance!” I told Uluoma.
She acted like a much-matured young woman. She called the right emergency number.
I told her to call Emma, who could reach my sister’s husband who was not in and was in Lagos.
The ambulance came with the paramedics armed with their emergency First Aid kit and stretchers. Four of the female paramedics were in white tops and white pants and white shoes. And one of them was in a blouse, blue denim pants, and canvas shoes. She seemed to be the leader. She did not waste time to attend to my sister. Three men accompanied them. They put the oxygen mask on her and we lifted her up and placed her on the stretcher. They carried her into the waiting ambulance and rushed her to the hospital nearby. I followed in another vehicle from the hospital.
Inside the ER, the paramedics handed her over to the waiting doctor and nurses and they knew what to do and did so without wasting time. I was standing by in the corridor praying for divine intervention. Later, the doctor asked me what happened to her. And I explained how I found her slumping in her bathtub after her eldest daughter raised an alarm that her mother was in trouble. The doctor and nurses told me she was now stable and I thanked them one after the other as they were going in and out of ER. Then I knelt on the floor to thank God. At this moment, nothing mattered most to me, except the precious life of my sister. All my great dreams of winning an Oscar, Nobel, and other highly coveted prizes evaporated in the state of emergency. They became meaningless to me. Even the sight of two beautiful and well-endowed young women walking along the corridor did not delight or excite me. The prettiest women were the nurses in white helping the doctor to revive my sister. The nurses and doctors at the Nigeria LNG RA Hospital on Bonny Island were God sent angels. The Chief Medical Officer who bought two of my medical books last year and I gave him the complimentary medical books and journals for their library, also came to pay attention to my sister.

As my world froze yesterday morning, I now realized how insignificant and irrelevant are the vanities of life. Because, the jeeps, cars, houses, plots of land, million naira bank accounts, trips to the US, UK and Singapore and shopping in Dubai, did not matter anymore. What mattered most was the revival and survival of my sister. And when she came around, I experienced the kind of peace of mind I have never felt before. I sighed in great relief. Then I returned to the house to have my bath and put on new clothes. The husband arrived with his colleagues and went to the hospital to visit her.
“Thank God, she is alive and recovering fast. Thank God. Thank God,” he said.
He returned to the house with her soiled clothes and washed them like a nursing mother washing the dirty diapers of her baby.
I was overwhelmed by his tender loving care for his wife and this is the same man who once beat her up and swore to deal with her, but now very sober and loving. What a life.
Thank God, I advised my sister to forgive him and love him.
They have come a long way, from their one room bed sitter in Lagos, to their four bedroom flat in Ibadan and now living in a big house with guest rooms and building houses in Port Harcourt and Uyo, and driving two jeeps and one car. And they can afford to spend vacations anywhere in the world.
I am very glad and grateful to the Almighty God for blessing them with abundant life and prosperity. I wish them longer life with their five beautiful and wonderful children and more prosperity.

What happened yesterday confirmed my hypothesis on two of my so-called female companions who confess and profess so much love online and offline.
“I love you. I am missing you. When are you coming to Abuja?”
“Oh, darling. I am bored without you. When are you coming to Lagos?”
I called the one in Abuja first and told her that I was in the ER with my sister in critical condition. But till date, she has not even called to ask me how she is faring.
I called the one in Lagos, and told her. She called me as I hung up and I told her what happened. How my sister slumped in her bathtub. She said, she would call back to know how she fared, but till date, she has not called.
The one in Abuja is the most disappointing. Only last week, she called me, to whine over how a wicked Muslim man beat her up and I kept on calling her to know how she was feeling. I reported the incident to the Muslim Association of Nigeria and another Islamic NGO for Muslim women in Nigeria.
The one in Lagos was writhing in pains a year ago, and I was by her side to care and comfort her.
It is in critical situations of emergencies that you would really know those who are fair weather friends and those who are truly your friends.
Anyone who does not appreciate your welfare and the welfare of your family is not a friend.
The person is only a selfish fair weather friend who only wants her own bargains and selfish interests and selfish pleasures.
The sooner you separate the goats from the sheep, the better, and safer you would be.
Do not waste the precious quality time of your precious life with such selfish and uncaring people.
Jesus Christ said:
"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.
If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

~ Matthew 7:6 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

Your life is very precious and sacred, therefore, do not give them to the dogs of this world, and do not offer your highly valuable skills and talents to the pigs of this world, lest they turn around to spite you and vandalize your genius.
There are humans who behave like dogs, pigs, and you must identify them, beware of them, and do not waste your precious life with such dogs and pigs of the earth.

There are great lessons to learn from the problems and the troubles in this world.
There are great lessons to learn from the storms of life.
Make sure that you are not ignorant of these vital lessons of life. Because, they will guide and guard you safely the rest of your life.

Life is too precious and too valuable to be toyed with.
Do not let anyone or anything mess up, toy with, or waste your precious life.

How much we appreciate our life and the lives of others shows how much we appreciate God and our existence on earth.

No price you place on your life is too much. Because, as I said earlier, life is priceless.
You are more precious and worthier than all the status symbols, worldly acquisitions, and possession on earth.
You are the image and likeness of God, the greatest being in the whole universe and who reigns in awesome majesty in eternity. And He wants you to live a happy, healthy, and fulfilled life on earth.
Do not let anyone steal your greatest prize.
Do not let anyone take away your precious and priceless life.
You have won it, you deserve it, therefore cherish, and treasure your life with every breath you have.

When I returned from the hospital yesterday, I knelt down in my sister's bedroom and praised God for saving my sister. Then, I went to my room and went on my knees again to thank God for His benevolent divine intervention in the emergency and saved the beautiful and wonderful life of my dear sister.