Tugs at my HEART strings

April 24^th 

What does it feel like to have a heart attack?

Does it begin slowly, as the muscle is deprived of blood?

Does it hit suddenly as a door slamming the unsuspected fingertip?

I don’t know. But I know that my father does. He suffered one last night.

I am on my way to see him today.

As I laid in bed, wiping tears from my face, wiping fears from my mind,

I imagined that as soon as his body realized his heart was in pain, the rest of it also began to hurt.

Likewise as the group text came in to all my siblings about dad, we each began to ache.

To fear, to cry, to question, to pray.

As I dropped to my knees, I imagined at least 10 other pairs of knees on the floor, each of my siblings, across the country sending similar petitions Heavenward.

And at that moment I realized that we were the body. And my dad and mom are the heart of us. They are the ones that not only gave us life, but continually pump the blood of spirituality, faith, and love into each of our lives. And that no matter our current circumstances, situations or locations in life, we all stopped a moment, we all dropped a moment, we all ached a moment when our family’s heart was attacked, was threatened.

Then a few hours later, I began to see news of the earthquake in Nepal and the thousands of people who are hurting physically, who are grieving the sudden loss of their loved ones and searching in fear for those unaccounted for. I immediately prayed for them and felt the outpouring of love and concern being sent their way from all around the globe.

At that moment I realized that we are the body. And that Christ is the heart of us.

 His atoning blood not only gives us life, love, and hope, but will sustain us as humanity – as we reach out to one another, like vessels compensating for a lack of blood flow. His love is the blood, our lives and how we live them are the vessels that carry it to the body in perpetual need.

And one day when He comes again, there will be millions of knees on the ground, simultaneously, across the Earth voicing praises to His name.

Every Knee Shall Bow Photo Courtesy of J.Kirk Richards