Open Heart Surgery & The Promise of Christmas: You Can Rise!

Write Your Life Forward" Christmas Edition!

Today's Reading

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:5-8, NIV)

^"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." (Genesis 5:8)

When Hearts Break

When the cardiologist broke the news, my heart broke into pieces.

A large superior sinus venous atrial septal defect and PAPVD of the right upper and middle pulmonary veins into the SVC-RA junction—with associated right-sided volume loading—meant the hole in her heart was so significant it required more than medication or a keyhole intervention, but an open-heart surgery.

Can you live with a hole in your heart?

That was the exact medical question I asked, but also the one I asked myself—over and over.

That Thursday, we wheeled her into the hospital and laid her on a rattling metal bed. I kissed my baby girl all over her face, looked into the eyes of her anaesthetist, and begged him silently: please, keep her safe, keep her alive.

She had never been put under the knife before.

She had rarely even been sick.

Today, after nearly a year of waiting—endless delays from COVID and last-minute hospital cancellations—the day had finally come. A day that felt like the culmination of every moment my heart had broken and caved in, even as the world shut down and our borders tightened. We were far from families, far from the feeling of security…

In the operating room, the surgeon and his team would open her chest and lay bare her beating heart. But who would hold mine? After signing the consent form, detailing all the risks—even the possibility of death—and I dared not imagine a world without her —- and I prayed, Father, please, please don’t let this ever be a reality —- and will I stop believing in miracles if it did?

Can we still live with a hole in our hearts—the way the world is right now?

The headlines scream of pain and loss: war tragedy in Syria, women's protests in Iran, wars in Ukraine and our despairing world makes it hard not to wonder.

As my husband and I waited for what felt like ages —- the surgeon must be bending over our daughter’s open chest, taking a scalpel to her pulmonary artery, dissecting it, skeletonising the superior vena cava, fixing the defect, clamping the vessels….

Will she ever make it through? — and I feel my own oxygen saturation fluctuating.

Does God feel what we feel? Is He familiar with our suffering? Does He see our tears? Or does He sit distant, unmoved on His throne?

The story of the Flood tells us otherwise: “His heart was filled with pain” (Genesis 6:6).

God has a heart… and it hurts.

It hurts with the same sorrows that break us. The account of the flood reveals a God who is righteous in His justice but also deeply sorrowful over the brokenness of the world. He is a just God who does not turn away from the wickedness of our world, yet provides a way out to those who would step into the ark of His salvation.

And how will we find this favour that Noah found with the Lord?

When will we ever stop doubting that God’s eyes still roam the earth, seeking those whose hearts trust in His goodness—even when life feels anything but good?

Ann Voskamp writes,

“God, who hung the stars, has taken a thread of His heart and tied it to yours. He didn’t need to, but He chose to. When you feel pain, He feels it too. When sin severed humanity’s time with God in the Garden, He could have ended it all. But He didn’t.”

Instead, He gave us time—and history continues to unfold —- because this gift of second chances is wrapped in His tears.

Time continues because God chose to enter into our suffering.

You see, while other religions seek to lead us out of the world and into heaven, Christ came down out of heaven to meet us in our brokenness.

He came to us, to walk with us, to suffer with us.

The ark was a cradle in the flood; the Cross is our shelter from the pain and suffering of sin.

On the Cross, they pierced His side, spearing straight through His heart. Out flowed water and blood—a flood of love, a way out of our impossibility.

God’s heart broke in two so that we could step into the ark of His love, to whisper to us: we are never alone in our suffering.

And because of this, we can believe: God is the Author of our story, and He knows the last page of history, which is really His Story. He will keep writing until the last line is good.

The promise for Christmas comes as an ark of our rescue. The invitation to hold you, to carry you through, and to raise you gently through any floods come as you choose to step in and trust Him.

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