Matters of the Heart –

Today I got a voice message from Bethany of our FIRST grandbaby’s premiere recorded heartbeat at 11 weeks prenatal. We’d all been waiting for that heartbeat to reassure the GOOD – BELL clan that everything was just fine. Somewhere in all my treasures, I have a tape of her first heartbeat recorded in my obstetrician's office back in 1979. June 5th (give or take a few days)– we’re anxious to meet our #10 as Mat and Bethany like to refer to him (her).


Marshall called Sunday to say that he was going to be on private jet with a team of doctors to retrieve a donor heart for one of the patients on his floor. He called later, and, of course, I had several questions -- one of which was about the family who had to give consent at a painful time in their lives– so that another person would have a greater quality of life. Marshall talked about the rushed flight there and back -- and in a matter of a very short time --not more than five hours – the disconnected heart started beating again in someone else’s chest. I’d loved to have heard the cheers that went up in that operating room with that first heartbeat.




So much of life is measured by the heartbeat – We monitor the heartbeat on a screen- -- do ultra sounds and doppler readings --check pulse rates at the wrist when we exercise. We even make old wive's predictions of a baby's sex by the rate of the heart beat (our baby's was 176). We read health and life by the heartbeat.


I've been thinking about all that has transpired this past week regarding the heart: the confirmation of new life in Bethany with the sounds of our baby's heartbeat-- the impact of one heart given so that someone else's quality of life could be restored– and one of those “light bulb” moments occurred for me –– that’s what our redemption is –SOMEONE gave consent – so that we could have quality of life – abundant life -- Eternal life— living forever with our Savior's heart now beating in us.