One Little Life
Thursday, July 6, 2023
It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Matt. 18:14, NKJV.
How old is she?" we asked as deep inside another youngster's heart the surgeon placed the final stitches around a cloth patch used to close a large hole between the two main pumping chambers. "And can you keep her going until we get this one finished?"
A cold, ashen-gray, air-hungry, and now nearly limp 3-year-old girl had been brought urgently into the bustling six-bed intensive-care ward of the Tribhuven University Teaching Hospital of Kathmandu, Nepal. Dr. Glenn Van Arsdell and I and our Nepalese associates were rushing to finish the second of three scheduled children of the day while our principal anesthesiologist, Dr. Stanley Brauer, assisted the ICU team in their desperate effort to keep the 3-year-old from perishing.
Members of the Loma Linda University overseas heart surgery team exhibited this day the best that God had given each participant, for the nearly dead child got her chance for the urgent operation she needed to restore life and hope for a future. In less than 30 minutes we had the congenitally sealed valve leading out of her heart to her lungs opened wide and circulation through her lungs and body restored. She left the operating room another 30 minutes later somewhat stunned, but with a warm, pink glow that promised new life.
The girl recovered completely. Perhaps more than any of the other 30 infants, children, and young adults who had their malformed hearts repaired during our brief mission tour to Nepal, she exemplified the Creator's love for us all.
This one little life became a metaphor of God's day-by-day promise of life anew, a promise we seek to exemplify as individuals and as a team in our work at home and abroad. This one little life reaches out to each of us with God's message of hope. "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me" (Ps. 23:4, NRSV).
Do you sometimes feel insignificant? Hold on to the reality that God doesn't want even one of His children to perish. Like the shepherd searching for his one lost sheep, Jesus seeks for you and provides a way for you to be saved.
How old is she?" we asked as deep inside another youngster's heart the surgeon placed the final stitches around a cloth patch used to close a large hole between the two main pumping chambers. "And can you keep her going until we get this one finished?"
A cold, ashen-gray, air-hungry, and now nearly limp 3-year-old girl had been brought urgently into the bustling six-bed intensive-care ward of the Tribhuven University Teaching Hospital of Kathmandu, Nepal. Dr. Glenn Van Arsdell and I and our Nepalese associates were rushing to finish the second of three scheduled children of the day while our principal anesthesiologist, Dr. Stanley Brauer, assisted the ICU team in their desperate effort to keep the 3-year-old from perishing.
Members of the Loma Linda University overseas heart surgery team exhibited this day the best that God had given each participant, for the nearly dead child got her chance for the urgent operation she needed to restore life and hope for a future. In less than 30 minutes we had the congenitally sealed valve leading out of her heart to her lungs opened wide and circulation through her lungs and body restored. She left the operating room another 30 minutes later somewhat stunned, but with a warm, pink glow that promised new life.
The girl recovered completely. Perhaps more than any of the other 30 infants, children, and young adults who had their malformed hearts repaired during our brief mission tour to Nepal, she exemplified the Creator's love for us all.
This one little life became a metaphor of God's day-by-day promise of life anew, a promise we seek to exemplify as individuals and as a team in our work at home and abroad. This one little life reaches out to each of us with God's message of hope. "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me" (Ps. 23:4, NRSV).
Do you sometimes feel insignificant? Hold on to the reality that God doesn't want even one of His children to perish. Like the shepherd searching for his one lost sheep, Jesus seeks for you and provides a way for you to be saved.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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