Today, little Majd had his big surgery at Sheba Medical Center. He went in at about 8:00 am for both a mitral valve and left aortic valve repair. Majd was very quiet before his surgery began, anticipating with some apprehension the events to come; but he was very brave, and he didn’t cry as he was taken away.
It was a long and heavy time for his father, who loves his son very much. Majd’s father has a large heart that I witnessed much of during the surgery, fast to generate powerful emotion. He was also fast to serve, insisting on making me coffee with his skills accrued from a lifetime of varied work, not to mention great familiarity with hospital kitchenettes, freeze-dried coffee products and microwave ovens.
Praise God, the surgery turned out very well for little Majd, and everything the doctors aimed for was a complete success. He was wheeled out about six hours after he went in, to his father’s intense joy and relief.
At the end of the surgery, his father tried to describe for me the state of his heart at this moment; he told me no one can understand the pain and love that he felt unless they also had such a child. I agreed with him. Then he asked me: why did Jonathan start this? Why does Shevet do this work?
I thought for a moment about how to answer the question with the vocabulary I have available to me. Then I said this: my father started the work because God called him to it, and we continue in it for the same reason. And we do the work because when we see Majd, or children like him, we see children made in the image of God, and they are worth more than all the money in the world.
I thought for a moment about how to answer the question with the vocabulary I have available to me. Then I said this: my father started the work because God called him to it, and we continue in it for the same reason. And we do the work because when we see Majd, or children like him, we see children made in the image of God, and they are worth more than all the money in the world.
We pray and wait now for Majd’s continued recovery. Heal him quickly, Father!