A HUNDRED years ago, on 11th January 1922, something amazing happened in a hospital in Canada.
A teenage boy, Leonard Thompson, lay dying of an incurable disease. He, like everyone on that ward, had type 1 diabetes. But then his doctors started an experimental treatment called insulin.
The results were dramatic, reducing Leonard’s dangerously high blood-sugar levels to near normal and reversing the life-sentence of the disease.
Today more than 150 million people worldwide can enjoy life, thanks to the God-given knowledge, skill and perseverance of those Canadian doctors.
It’s a wonderful story. Sadly, though, the Bible makes it clear that everyone on the planet is facing another incurable disease, one that no doctor can ever treat. It’s heart disease: I have a heart that is set on pleasing myself and ignoring my Creator, while breezily living in the world He made.
But there is hope. Not medication, but the offer of a heart transplant.
The Lord Jesus explained that “it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come…” (Mark 7 verse 21).
His death on the cross, taking our sin on Himself, and His glorious resurrection, made it possible for people facing a death sentence, you and me, to have a new heart and a new life. “I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 11 verse 19).
Helen Hotchkiss is a member of Christ Church Wokingham, which meets on Sundays at St Crispin’s School at 10.30am. She is writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
