When a Heart is Healed, Part 1

So, I had a heart attack this week. A mild one, praise Jesus.  And now I am home. My being here was not a sure thing 48 hours earlier. I am trying to process this event; this “major life event”.  On the one hand, my own cardiologist, Robert Huxley, has done thousands of these procedures.  What’s one more? No big deal. On the other hand, he put a stent in my right coronary artery. Mine.  Big deal, right? He showed me the pictures of my heart and his handiwork. I told him, “Look, doc, I know this is science, but to us mere mortals, this is a miracle.” He shrugged it off as another day at the office. My mind and my heart beg to differ, doc; you did some really amazing and important work. In one day I learned how many people it takes to heal a heart: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, nurse aides, nutritionists, rehab specialists, dieticians, administrators, clerks, people to deliver food and clean rooms.   The next time I pray with someone facing a medical procedure I will have a much more informed prayer than “help the doctors and nurses.”  It takes a dedicated, coordinated, well-trained crew of people who love what they do to heal a heart. And it sure helps if they are nice people.

I suppose this is my way of saying “thank you”, and I realize how truly inadequate words are.  My one hope is that the people who treated me knew that we had one more team member working with them.  I believe that.  I got myself sick.  God, through his servants, got me well.  How can I say thanks to the God who heals my diseases, but more importantly, heals my soul? I echo the Psalmist:

Praise the Lord, my soul,

All my inmost being, praise his name.

Praise the Lord, my soul,

And forget not all his benefits-

Who forgives all your sins,

And heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from the pit

And crowns you with love and compassion,

Who satisfies your desires with good things

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

And so it is.  Thank you.  Amen.