THE FRIEND I wrote about in Wednesday’s blog post is having heart surgery today. Blocked arteries.
I just got a text message from his wife saying they are finishing up the surgery now, and that he’s doing fine and they will know more in about 30 minutes.
My friend and I attend the same Bible study class at church. Because I sit at a computer all day long, I am the default communications guy. I create and send out the weekly newsletter, mainly to let people know what we will be studying in the week ahead, what mission project we’re about to work on, along with headline events in the lives of some of our class members.
This week, however, the newsletter has been a daily event.
Sometimes more than daily.
Today, we wanted to make sure that my friend’s wife and teenage daughter were not alone during the surgery.
So I sent out the newsletter yesterday letting people know when and where the 3- to 4-hour surgery would take place. That’s when class members started volunteering to go to the hospital to be with the family.
I didn’t think my wife, a nurse, would be able to go because she worked a 12-hour shift last night, and will work 12-hour shifts for the next two nights. But after work this morning, she drove over to the neighboring hospital where the surgery is taking place.
They bumped up the surgery from an afternoon procedure to a morning one. So my wife got there just in time to pray him into surgery. That’s what I got to do on Wednesday, when he had his exploratory surgery.
Two surgeries and two Miller prayers. It was just a matter of fortunate timing for us. And I hope for him.
When I sent out the class newsletter yesterday, inviting people to join his family in the waiting room, I ended the newsletter with a short thought – a wish, if not a subtle shove:
This surgery is going to leave a mark.
It would be nice if the most memorable mark is that family and friends were there for them.
They were. They are.
And I believe they will be, in the days and weeks ahead.
We’re on a journey through life. A pilgrimage to the kingdom of heaven. I like my caravan.
“Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family”(Proverbs 18:24 The Message).
Your friend and his family are in my prayers!