I left Auburn yesterday afternoon bound for UAB Hospital. A good friend that I grew up with, more like a brother really, was with his father after a late Tuesday night lung transplant brought on by pulmonary fibrosis. After extensive surgery, the man that i call dad, and whom calls me son, is now breathing from a young, healthy organ donor’s lung that was Life Flighted from Foley to UAB after his death two days ago.
I have been an organ donor for years now. It was a decision i made once i was old enough to be able to tell the DMV yes without my parents consent and i haven’t really thought beyond this: if i’m dead, then i sure don’t need them anymore.
seeing my friends dad lying in the hospital, overjoyed with what God had done for him through the transplant, was the first time i had ever been (or at least known someone personally who had received) on the receiving end of the gift that someone gives when they too are willing to say, yea, i don’t need these anymore. obviously my prayer is that the donor, whomever he was, knew God the Father and was saved through a relationship with his Son. Lacey and I have prayed for him and also for peace for his family over these last few days, and i’m sure the thoughts of him and what he was like will be forever with us, especially my friend’s dad.
last night standing next to his bed, Gary handed me a “palm cross.” i had never heard of one of these, but the gist is that its made out of solid hardwood, with no finish intentionally left off of it. the idea is that as people hold it that the oil from people’s hands cure the wood. Gary told me this: the last person who holds it prays for him through the laying on of their hands while holding the cross. the next time he is in pain or anxious or is doubting the outcome, he remembers that prayer and the person whose oil last touched the cross. i was honored to pray for and with him.
These words have been living in my heart for the last 4 days, so it was the natural overflow of my heart to pray them over a man who is still not out of the woods:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9).
regardless of where we are today, we have no idea what God is working together for us. we know that we love God, and although we may not agree with the way things are unfolding for us today, we believe in faith that God, who is Faithful, has an amazing future for us prepared…both on this earth and in the one to come.
