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Remembering the Gift of Life

In an interview on NPR’S Fresh Air, Joshua Mezrich, an associate professor in the division of multiorgan transplantation at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, reflected on saying a few words about the donor before the operation begins:

I want to reiterate as many times as possible how important the donors are. How much they are heroes to us and we always want to remember their stories and this gift that they're giving. It's very emotional when … we're in the operating room, we always take a pause. Our people from our organ procurement team, after a moment of silence, will read something. Often it's a poem or something that one of the loved ones asked us to say about the person. Maybe a little bit about who they were and what was important to them. Sometimes it has a religious base, sometimes it doesn't.

And we all think about it, and it is very special. It's emotional. And then the second that's over, we move on and really go after the task at hand. So it's interesting. You have this emotional experience. Then you have to very quickly kind of push it out of the way and move on to the operation. But it's always very special.

How much more should we as Christians seek to remember the gospel story and what we have been given?

Dave Davies; “A Surgeon Reflects On Death, Life And The 'Incredible Gift' Of Organ Transplant,” NPR (1-14-19)

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