A few months ago, a friend of mine had a beautiful baby boy. Beautiful, but in critical condition. He had a bad heart. After some time in NICU, the doctors concluded he would need a transplant. Upon hearing this news, and seeing his picture, my heart melted. All things considered, my kids are perfectly healthy. Yet I knew what my friend was feeling. I put the call out for prayers and immediately hit my knees.
Another friend later approached me and told me she had a hard time praying for this baby because she knew that if he got a new heart, then another baby had to die. I had the same feeling. In fact, the night earlier I had a dream where I was in the OR and it was my baby on the operating table. In came the doctors wheeling in another baby. I was told, “just say the word, and we’ll pull the plug and your baby will be healed.” I couldn’t make that call. Yes, it would save my baby, but I couldn’t sacrifice another. I quickly woke up in tears.
I then talked to my friend. Turns out that there was a heart available the weekend prior. But the heart was too large. The kicker? The donor was a baby who had just drowned. I was shattered when the reality hit that another baby had to die so that this baby could live.
But I was reminded of another baby who had to die so that others could live.
“Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.‘” (John 12:23-24)
Another baby did die a little more than a week later. My friend’s baby got a new heart. He’s now home, healthy, happy and loved. But there is another home that is a little more empty right now. Yet I’m confident that it wasn’t just this baby who got a new heart. I did too and I pray so did the family that is now one less.
Good news from bad news. God does seem to always work it that way …
And isn't every one of us called to be a living sacrifice, our own lives gratefully poured out so that a heart of stone might be replaced with His heart of flesh, vibrantly beating for His Father as His is.
Anne, great to hear from you! Yes, God does have a funny way of working like that. He shows us how to die in order to live a new life so that we can follow that example. Replacing our heart of stone… "vibrantly beatign for His Father" I couldn't have put it better.
Even after all the years and years of walking with the Lord and TRYING to trust Him through difficult and questioning moments. So much on hearts. So well expressed.