This is a re-print of an article by a friend, Frank Myer. It spoke to me, and so I wanted to re-publish it, with his gracious consent:
Good Morning Folks,
Enjoy the long weekend, an extra day to ponder life or escape the daily grind. Even better, college football starts this weekend.
The other day a story caught my attention. A mom got to listen to her daughter’s heart for the first time in a long time. Short version – a teenage girl lost her life in a skiing accident. The parents donated her organs. Then they got curious about who the heart went to. As you might guess, the organ donor people frown on this kind of thing. As fate would have it, the recipient of the heart got curious too, and she started searching to find out who gave her the heart that let her have a second lease on life.
They met.
Can you imagine the emotions flying around the room when the two ladies met? The lady was a nurse, a mom, a wife, and just a pretty neat lady. The tears were flowing. At one point the new holder of the heart got out her stethoscope and let the first mom listen to her daughter’s heart. The dad did too.
Think about this. When was the first time you heard your child’s heart? I can tell you when I heard my daughter’s heart. I can remember when she would be asleep and I’d just lay my hand on her, feeling that little heart beat.
Imagine placing the ends of the stethoscope in your ears, taking the other end and placing it on the chest of the woman who now lives because of the heart you allowed to be shared. Would that make an impact? Would your hands shake? Would you be recognize the steady beat? Would you reconnect?
As they were leaving, a group hug, more tears and the dad whispered: “I am so glad you are such a good person.” Who wouldn’t be? If you lost a child and you made the choice to allow organ donations, wouldn’t you want the organs to go to good people? It’s common sense. Anybody ahead of me on this one?
When I heard those words from the dad’s mouth, other words shot to my mind. “While we were yet sinners God sent his son for us.” We may be good people now, but we weren’t. We were horrible people. You name it, as a body of folks, we’ve done it. I had a friend that told me he didn’t believe in original sin because every one he committed had been done before.
Try to fathom the emotions of that mom and dad as they listened to heart beat of their daughter’s heart. Try to understand the love that God must have to allow his son’s heart to be stopped for you. When you begin to grasp that concept, the world changes. You change because you understand without that sacrificial heart you would not be who you are, you’d be a lot worse.
In the interview of the recipient, she told about being in her last days. She was so weak she was sleeping 18 hours a day. It’s all her heart could do. Then she got the new heart.
What are you doing to do with the new heart? Ignore it? Take it for granted? Gloss over it? Or
Share what you have?
Be nice to someone. Someone that may not have the ability to be nice back.
Enjoy the ride,
Frank Myer
PS from Doug: There are things you can do to share your heart. Make a living will. Fill out a donor card. Explain your wishes to your loved ones. Join the Bone Marrow Registry program at: http://www.marrow.org/ . There is no shortage of good ideas for giving back to the community and the world.
