June 15, 2016

An original story….
They rushed the man into the operating room. He was just barely hanging on to life. The operating room (OR) was alive with an army of people, organized chaos, like ants all with their function and purpose. It was a choreographed dance of life saving decisions. There was a fluidity of motion. “His blood pressure is dropping”, shouted a voice. “Do we have a line?”

“IV is in, we need to start a course of…” The voice was drowned out by a more urgent request…”Do we have any scans? We need to know where the blockage is.” “Nothing in his chart” another voice shouted. “We have to open him up.”

The dance in the OR now changed. Even the bit players now responded to cues. “Scalpel”, came the request. “Suction…”

“Rib expander.” Motion followed sound followed urgency. There was the heart, beating, distressed. And then…..There was an audible gasp. Eyes were moving, but not much else. One set of eyes looked at the beating heart – then looked across to another set of eyes – and back to the heart. What they saw took some time to understand. There was a line, like black ink running along the bottom of the heart. It was distinct, different from the veins and arteries.

“Suction” came the request, snapping people back to attention. “What is that?” the surgeon said, almost under her breath. Words began to appear, coming into view…”LOVE THE LORD YOUR G-D…”

“Forceps” she whispered. Carefully she tried to probe — careful not to damage the heart tissue. “It looks like someone wrote….something.” But the words were gone. She blinked. A hand came across her forehead wiping away the sweat that had suddenly broken out. “I don’t understand”. “Doctor, what is it?” a resident asked. “I have never….” But she couldn’t finish her thoughts, because more words appeared “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR…” She couldn’t make out the rest as the heart continued to beat more rapidly now.

She was thinking, not so much about her medical training, but about her religious classes she attended so long ago. She remembered…”I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their G-d and they will be my people.”

“Could it be?” She stepped away, almost losing her balance.

Story based on the scripture: “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”  Jeremiah 31:33-34

Pastor Dave