The Brothers

Matthew 5 You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Genesis 16 And the angel of the Lord said to Hagar, Behold you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.

Genesis 17 And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before You! God said, No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

Psalm 133 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down in the beard.

Some people say that believing the Bible requires a huge leap of faith. I say that anyone who reads the Bible and looks at the world today and is not convinced of the truth of God's Word is blind and deaf.

You only have to watch the news or visit Israel to see the struggle that continues to this day between the sons of Isaac and Ishmael. Two sons. Two mothers. Two faiths. Two nations. Such an enormous conflict for such a tiny country. Ancient. Enduring. Fulfilling prophecy. That is the larger picture. I would like to show you a smaller picture. A glimpse. A sliver of hope of one brother reaching out to help another brother's child.

Shevet Achim house in Jerusalem. The name itself means brothers dwelling together. The building itself is the oldest children's hospital in the Middle East and is home to some of the staff and several families who are awaiting, or recovering from, heart surgery. Most of the children are from Iraq and Gaza. They are without insurance and most of them are without money to pay for the care they are receiving. And without the surgical repairs many of them are without hope. They are the children behind the walls.

I met Dr. Tamir at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, near Tel Aviv, Israel. He is the Jewish cardiologist who allowed me to witness my first open heart surgery. And there I saw the miracle that is taking place in Israel. Everyone in the OR is volunteering for this surgery.

For every child that comes to Wolfson for heart surgery there is a flat fee paid to the hospital that is nowhere near adequate to cover the cost of such a surgery. No matter how long the child stays or how many procedures are done. Right now they are averaging around 50 children per year; some of them staying in Israel for months at a time and requiring multiples procedures, medications, follow up visits and treatment for infections. During that time they are cared for at the hospital or at the house in Jerusalem. All on donations. Muslim families and children brought from enemy countries and territories to Israel for life saving operations.

That is the miracle that I witnessed in the OR and at Shevet Achim. Sons of Isaac saving the lives of the children of Ishmael. For free. Even more incredible, most of the people involved, on both sides, are unbelievers brought together by believers and followers of Christ.

So what does this mean to the average American? Probably not much. But it should. It should hold us captive. Hope springing up like a desert blooming. Small steps of peace. Seeds planted in the heart of a child. A Muslim child shown mercy by a Jewish team of physicians and nurses.

Will it change the world? It just might. It changed me. They changed me. Hamza, Deya, Ikram, Noir, Mohammed, Shad and Belial. Witnesses to God's love. Housed in Jerusalem by Americans. Cared for at Wolfson by Jewish and Arab Israeli's. Visited by people from Wales and Singapore and the US. New hearts paid for by generous donors who they may never meet. Grateful mothers. Healthy children. New hearts. New ways of thinking. Pathways to peace. One child at a time.

If that does not change us, touch us and cause hope to spring up in us...what will?