Baby Grabs Surgeon's Hand before being born.

My Dad has been a minister for over 60 years.  Most of his sermons are memorable and have added so much to my life.  One however, is often the reason I become angry while dealing with some folks.  It amazes me that so many people can deny good research so that their unsustainable viewpoints look better.  They make fun of research or happenings.  They distort information or at the very least refuse to include it in their theories. 

My Dad's sermon was about the sin of lying.  I believe he used the verse in Revelations 21:8  "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."


His point with this sermon was that if you lie - you go to Hell.  No way out of that one.  But...what constitutes a lie?  Most people know the answer to that one but Dad added something that has haunted me all my life.  He taught that if you simply misrepresented the truth, you were actually lying.  So if Dad asked me if I read a book and I said yes - knowing that I had only read half the book - not all of it - I was lying.  Not because I didn't tell the truth - after all I did read part of the book.  I was lying because I lead him to believe something that wasn't true.  I knew he was asking about the entire book and by not offering the exact truth, I lead him to believe a lie. 

Whoa.....that's hard.  Now as an adult I see how very important that is.  Every time another person leads us to believe a lie, we become part of the tangled web.  Take a moment and think about all the lies that have affected our lives.  I've known many Christians who like to think they are being kind by supporting a woman's right to have an abortion.  They conveniently look the other way when some new truth supports the idea that abortion is actually the killing of a human life. 

A friend sent this to Ron and then it made it's way to me.  It is proof that babies in the womb are more than just a collection of cells.  It is a baby.  Please read to the end and gaze at the fantastic picture of one human connecting with another.

A picture began circulating in November. It should be 'The Picture of the Year,' or perhaps, 'Picture of the Decade.' It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.


The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas,who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with Spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta.  She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb...

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr.Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger.. DrBruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.' The text explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr.. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.'

Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. She said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person.'Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. 

Don't tell me our God isn't an awesome God!!!!!

 
If you google this story you will find that even with pictures....this story has been disputed. And even the doctor refuses to see the miracle and instead quotes medical training rather than admit it was a miracle.



Truth or Fiction states "The picture became a sensation as a forwarded email especially among opponents of abortion. The surgeon, Dr. Bruner, told USA Today in 2000 that the picture was being treated like an urban legend and that he'd even received a report that a team of medical experts had called it a hoax. Bruner confirmed that the surgery and the photo were real but said that it was "not true" that the baby reached out of the womb and grabbed his hand, as some of the forwarded emails alleged. "Samuel and his mother, Julie, were under anesthesia and could not move," he said. "The baby did not reach out. The baby was anesthetized. The baby was not aware of what was going on."


Michael Clancy, who owns the copyright to the photo, was stunned by Bruner's comments and maintains that they do not fit what he saw happen during the surgery and when he took his pictures. On his website at www.michaelclancy.com, Clancy said he knows what he saw and also quoted a nurse at Vanderbilt who told him that she'd seen babies do that "all the time."

That's the trouble with trying to hide the truth - or escape from your responsibility to look at all the facts.  Often you miss the best part of any nugget of truth - you miss the vein that leads us straight to God.  The miracle of this photo was not whether or not the baby was thanking the doctor or had some conscious thought - the miracle is that the surgeon was able to connect with another human being.  That he touched that hand, that this human being had unconscious movement just like any other child or adult, that the doctor's skill saved the child's life, that this "IS" an actual hand of an actual human being and not just a mass of cells. 

What do you think?
Seeking His Wisdom,

Debbie

A very important Family Lesson

I think every mother and father has done this at one time or another.  It's a problem that must be addressed and we must make every effort to correct.  Thank you Darlene for sending this to me.  And thank you darling for all your prayers.  I am getting better.



I ran into a stranger as he, passed by, "Oh excuse me please" was my reply.
He said, "Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you."
We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said good-bye.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.
"Move out of the way," I said with a frown.
He walked away, his little heart broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed, God's still small voice came
to me and said, "While dealing with a stranger,
common courtesy you use, but the family you love,
you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers he brought for you.
He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,
you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."
By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;
"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.
"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."
I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."

He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay. I love you anyway."
I said, "Son, I love you too, and
I do like the flowers, most especially the blue."

Sometimes, we just need a little reminder of what's important!

FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU

Seeking His Wisdom,
Debbie