Turning the Hearts of the Fathers to their Children

It hasn't even been a week since my son left, but in that short amount of time he's lived a lifetime!  Thankfully everything worked out smoothly catching all the flights, not losing luggage, documents, or money.  We can only thank the Lord for that and all the people praying!

The good doctor he's staying with gave him the day he arrived to recover and the very next day he was supposed to be involved in 15 different procedures, 5 of them being surgery.  Keep in mind my son is not a doctor and has never seen human surgery before, only animal surgery (which I also thank God he did see that 4 years ago.  It was great prep for the surgery he was about to see).  I couldn't believe it.  From what we heard later on via email, he was able to be directly hands on, scrubbing up, assisting in a variety of different operations from a hernia, broken femur, nose tumor, brain tube replacement, and more.  That was just in one day!  Since then he's already seen a very sick patient die, participated in more surgery and has already seen the sick recover.  I can't even imagine what 3 months will provide for him in terms of more experience!  I say, "Come home now!"  He's had probably more experience than a typical med student gets in a year!

I'm amazed that the surgeon he is staying with is taking him under his wing.  I really didn't expect that.  I thought he was going to pass him off to another lower doctor.  But no, this surgeon is taking him everywhere.  We have since found out his reputation goes before him.  Apparently he's been asked by med schools out here to teach the types of surgeries he performs, so I feel so grateful that he's the one by son gets to observe.  He's been allowed to take the odd picture of the operations he's been involved with.  The irony of that is I feel like it is deja vu.  The pictures he sent us were almost identical to the ones my dad had taken years ago when he was there (when I was a a baby).  To think his grandson is now taking operation pictures is amazing!

There is one more powerful thing my son told us that makes me realize the sovereignty of God and how He uses everything in our lives to prepare us for something down the line as well as the power of just being near our children when they are young.  Over 11 years ago we heard teaching on the verse that ends the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6, "And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”  How we longed to turn our hearts to our children, but it felt so hard when my husband was gone all day and was working away from home.  As we prayed and begged God to bring him home, our prayers were answered and he was able to have a home business for 12 years.  In that time, my husband was super deliberate and made a point of having all the kids as much as possible near him helping with any task he could get them to help him with.  He made a point of working even more closely with the boys, knowing he was raising men.

This was not always a walk in the park, as the expression goes.  Doing the stuff of men is hard work, often intense, scary, occasionally an emergency situation.  It would sometimes mean there was no time for a soft voice and a long explanation of how to do something if a horse was out or a cow was escaping.  It might mean a loud shout and the boys would have to respond.  No time to take offense.  Just listen, obey and do it so that no one gets hurt.  Other times while fixing a car it might mean shouting out, "Hold the light here!  Now!!!"  If the boys didn't respond quickly then the engine might drop on him under the car.  I was amazed at how the boys just took it.  They seemed to know Dad wasn't mad.  He just needed them to listen right way.  Personally, when I work with my husband, which I do ALL THE TIME now because all my boys seem to be GONE ALL THE TIME, I can't stand it!!!  We recently had to get two naughty little horses back in to the fencing and, trust me, I was doing a very good job, but I got shouted at like I was 6 and I didn't like it.  He told me later he didn't shout, but he had shouted and, like I said, I didn't like it.  But that's because I'm his wife, not his son.  My sons seemed to know what the tone of voice meant.  I, on the other hand, don't care how intense the situation is, I don't like being shouted at!  I have had to learn what my boys already know, he's not mad, he's just shouting out commands that will save my life.  I guess I don't have to like it.  Just like the boys, I just have to do what he says so I don't die!

All this to say, in the middle of surgery, my son had to, yuck, hold a bone in place, or something awful like that.  He then had to hold another object he was passed, all the while not moving the bone.  At one point, he said, he was holding multiple things, holding skin back, sucking up blood, and wasn't allowed to move a muscle.  He said it was very hard and had no idea surgery was such a physical thing.  Having never done this before, my son didn't know exactly what to hold, where to put things, etc.  And the doctor snapped instructions at him.  My son didn't even flinch.  He's been snapped at before.  He knew it was an emergency situation and he didn't have time to stand there and cry or faint or drop the bone.  He had been prepared for that moment years earlier when he'd been on the farm putting cows and horses in.  Then later he had to hold the light for the doctor over the incision.  Again, having the light in the exact place is key.  Well, guess who has tons of experience holding the light for someone else over an engine or over a wall that's being painted or over all sorts of things, all the while being told perhaps sharply, "No, not there, here. no, not there, HERE!!!" ?  That's right, my son.  He has tons of experience holding the light over things, so when the surgeon was in the middle of the operation, my son didn't need to be told where to put it, he just knew.  My husband has always tried to explain to the boys, "Anticipate what I need so I don't have to ask."  My son had learned and this proved it.

When he told us that over the whatsapp phone call we were able to have (love technology!!!)  my husband just sat there and smiled.  I sat there and laughed!  Never in a million years did we know all that effort we had put in and prayed about and tried to develop in our children would actually amount to anything.  Of course we had hoped and trusted God, but we didn't know how it would play out or what it would look like.  It was such an amazing answer to prayer.  My son had been adequately prepared for this experience without us even realizing.  This is the power of just being near our children.  I feel like it is such an amazing example of what turning a heart towards a child looks like and by trusting God's Word, not knowing exactly what that will mean later on.  It wasn't us that noticed it as we weren't there at the time.  It was my son who told us, "Dad, it was just like working with you."  I couldn't believe it.

I praise God for this experience.  Now, I'm trying to figure out how I can get the 9 year old over there.....tomorrow....He needs some of that heart turning stuff!!!