It’s Good Friday, and it’s been just over a year since our kidney transplant surgery. My brother needed a kidney and we were fortunate enough for me to be a suitable donor.
Six months prior and up to the day before the surgery, my brother was on all kinds of medications and going through dialysis treatments every other day just to keep him alive. Everyday things were laborious for him; walking, showering, running errands, trying to sleep. It was a lifestyle in which no matter what he did, he would always end up feeling exhausted and emotionally spent.
But after the surgery, the very next day, after he got his new kidney it all changed! All the medications were gone and his dialysis treatments became a thing of the past. A brand new life began! It was a new beginning; a new life born out of a life that was dying!
When I think about all that God did to orchestrate this miracle for my brother, to provide a kidney to reverse the ill effects of a life that didn’t have much longer to live, how much more has Christ provided for all of us by donating His entire body?
How much more has Christ provided for our own health, healing and well-being? How much more has Christ given us through His death and resurrection the promise of eternal life for all who would put their trust in Him?
“Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:4-5 NIV