The Gift of Life; a New Heart
By Karen Fettig

It is now the season of giving. Shopping still to be done; finding that right gift for the ones we love. Stores are crowded, lines are long, and music is merry.  The different colored Christmas lights reflecting off of the snow exhilarate the senses, giving the heart a sense of peace and joy.

Our heart is the organ of life; pumping the lifeblood through the body. If the heart is weak then there is not much hope, anyway that is how it used to be. Now it is a common to have a heart transplant. When we think of giving we don’t usually think of the giving of a gift of an organ but it is a reality for those who are perishing.

The idea of transplanting organs is not new. It can be found in myths of the ancient Greeks and was referred to by even older civilizations. But until the middle of the twentieth century it remained largely impossible, a piece of myth, or fantasy, or science fiction. Skin and eyes were among the first successful transplants. But the larger, more complex, and imbedded organs posed countless problems. The kidney was the first such organ to be successfully transplanted.

Since humans naturally have two kidneys, but can live with just one, the kidney lent itself well to the process. (Of the major organs, the kidney is still the one most often transplanted.) The first attempts in the early 1950s, as in all transplant cases, were made when the only other alternative for the patient was death. These early patients briefly raised hopes by starting a good recovery, but then succumbed. The future of transplant surgery began to look very bleak.

My father-in-law was an insulin dependent diabetic, which really compromised his health. He developed a cold one day that he just couldn’t shake off. He was finally admitted to the hospital.  I remember him laying in his bed his face and body was puffy.  He thirsted so, but it was too hard for him to drink through his dry, swollen lips.

The diagnosis was bleak, they didn’t know what was wrong. Days went by and we knew he was dying. My mother-in-law finally told the hospital staff: “I am sending him to Bismarck.”  They were a bit miffed to say the least but finally got an ambulance ready and off he went a long ninety mile journey. He was in the Bismarck hospital no less that a half hour when he was diagnosed with severe kidney failure and they readied him for a flight to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. This started a long journey of dialysis and other preparations to have a kidney transplant. The day my son was born, February 1, 1974, my father-in-law left for the Mayo Clinic to get a new kidney; a gift from his dear sister. God, the doctors and his sister gave him the gift of another ten years of life; a record for a diabetic, kidney recipient.

Groote Schuur Hospital (Western Cape South Africa) was placed centre stage in the world's spotlight when Professor Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant on the third of December 1967. Sadly, Mr Louis Washkansky only lived for 18 days, succumbing in the end to pneumonia. His new heart beat strongly to the end.

This was a big milestone in surgical procedures. Heart transplantation has dramatically changed since Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed that first heart transplant. Anti-rejection drugs and other advances during the 1980s have made heart transplantation an effective therapy for carefully selected patients with advanced heart disease.

Who needs a heart transplant?

Patients who need heart transplants have one common characteristic; they are suffering from heart failure as a result of advanced heart disease. For these patients, transplantation is the only hope for survival as medical therapy or conventional heart surgery is no longer helpful. Without a heart transplant, survival will be limited to one or two years. Transplantation is performed for many heart conditions, but the two most common heart diseases leading to transplantation are coronary artery disease (narrowing or hardening of the coronary arteries) and cardiomyopathy (weakening of the heart muscle). Other disorders, such as heart valve diseases, congenital defects, and viral infections, can also weaken the heart and may lead to transplantation.

Around two thousand years ago, a boy baby was born in a dark stable; a straw bed cushioned his little head. As with any new baby, angels attended this birth. This child would be well known for the heart transplants that He would freely give; a surgeon of the utmost renown.

As a child he was different from other children. He had a sense of well-being and peace that most children do not have. A mean spirit or careless attitude that seemed to be the norm among children would not be found in Him. Even when others were mean to Him and made caustic fun of him, He was kind and of a generous spirit. (I can imagine) animals and birds (I can imagine)(delete) were safe with Him; delighting as he stroked their fur and feathers; the birds singing out praises to Him.

As always when someone’s behavior is in agreement with pureness, there will be others that are bound to help tempt that one fall into sin and vice. (That brings up a question: Why are the old time bank robbers like Jesse James and the Butch Cassidy Gang heros? Now we glorify outlaws and predators like wolves, which many times their intent is to kill and not just eat to survive.)

This child had all the temptations and more than I imagine that we have had, yet did not fall to even a thought of sin. Did he have any super power we cannot have? No. He did from the time He was born give His will and His heart to the will of Father God.

You see Father God has your and my best interests at heart.  It is not easy to see that sometimes in a world that loves to abuse children.  Birds make a loving nest for their little feathered babies and mouth feed them, but many humans, the highest of intellect, suffer their little ones to all kinds of abuse and tortures. I was reading about cultic and ritual abuse this week and it saddened my heart that anyone could torture their precious little babies and alter their minds with drugs and electricity.

Is that God’s will?  Absolutely not! He has to allow humans freedom of choice; freedom to choose how we will treat others and ourselves. He has to allow the damages of sinful choices to come on us. Does he like it? No, not one bit! He would rather that every one has a change of heart and repents and have life forever! (2Peter 3:9)

What is the difference between the gods’s?  Other god’s require horrible sacrifices: money, prostitution, long penitence’s, compromised forgiveness and never the real assurance of eternal life.

My God though is different!  He left the heavenly worship of angels, a sin free atmosphere and splendor, became a human, and was born into poverty. He was home schooled, worked hard, was obedient to His parents, kind to all, was never married, and was tempted to all the deviant behaviors we are, yet remained sinless. Instead of me doing something for God to earn His love and forgiveness, He was born a human to get to know me! Pretty cool, huh?  He loves me! And you!

A living God! The knowledge of a God who loves me enough to live and die for me softens my hard heart.  Through that knowledge I have a heart transplant.  I want Jesus to take away my heart of stone and give me a soft feeling heart like His. A heart of compassion and love, a heart that though it has been wounded by life, yields to the will of a living caring God. You see, Jesus came not to judge and condemn us but to save us!

That’s the big dynamic difference.  Jesus is alive and He wants you to be alive and free too.

What is the assurance of an eternal death?  Refusing the heart transplant!  Our hearts are sin sick. Granted sin is fun and exciting sometimes and we can be fairly oblivious to the fact it is sin. The reason for that is we ignore the prompting of our heart to not do those behaviors. The more we ignore that little voice in our heads to commit an act, the more easily we do it and pretty soon we don’t hear that small still voice say anything.

We reject the surgeon’s offer of a heart transplant, until Jesus gets shoved away completely in our lives. 

Yes, we fall to temptation but Jesus is ever ready to forgive us. Yes, we can ask Him simply with words or in our heart to forgive us as He is the only one that forgives sin! (Matt. 9:6, Mark 2:7, Mark 2; 10, Mark 11:25-26, Acts 5:31, 1 John 1:9 etc) He thus throws our sins into the deep where He sees it no more. To God it does not exist. If we do it again and ask forgiveness he throws it into the deep again. But though if we offend others, we must go to them also and ask forgiveness. A clean free heart is one that is a confessed heart.  A clean heart is free from sin disease.

So what must we do to be saved? Allow total change of heart not a partial change. We can’t preach in the day and molest little children by night. There are no secrets from God as everything is known to Him. People may be fooled but God is not.  Some are workers for God and the devil at the same time. Their acts make Him want to vomit! (Revelation 3:15-17)  The Christians, who preach one thing and consistently do another, will be held more accountable than those who did not know God at all. 

God accepts every baby step of good change that we have.  The baby steps of acceptance of His offer of heart change.  He constantly is working with us through His Holy Spirit and His Holy Angels to change our hearts. When Jesus died and rose to heaven he became our intercessor, He prays for us night and day. Our God does not sleep! Cool huh? He tells the Father that He has shed His blood for us and that covers our sins if we let it!  He asks the Father for our pardon. It is only if we reject his gift, His pardon, that we can lose.

During this season of giving, I ask for you to give one more thing; the ultimate gift; the gift of giving your heart, your will to Jesus Christ. He loves you! He wants you to spend eternity with Him!

I have been asked what’s there to do in heaven?  I still think it beats the alternative doesn’t it? Does life just have to get really bad for us, before we desire heaven?

My wish for you this Christmas season is that you can truthfully say “It is well with my soul!”

This page last updated on Thursday December 07, 2006 05:42 PM

Disclaimer: We are not a counselling service.  We prepare materials to help church
members and church leaders better understand the problems abuse brings and prevention methods.

Designed and maintained by Megan Field      Space provided by