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The last sentence is the one I am dealing with at this moment. As you read this my little almost six month old Gracie will be having open heart surgery. Gracie has taught me a great deal about love and care over her short life. She has taught me much about priorities and the importance of the family. At this moment she is giving me a master’s degree in what it means to really trust God.

At approximately 7 am on Monday we will hand our little girl off to a team of very talented and gifted doctors and nurses. By handing her off I will be saying to them, here is my prize position, I trust you with it. That is a very difficult thing to write and I can not imagine what it will be like to do it come time.

For something between four and five hours this team of medical professionals will hold my little girls heart in their hands. They will make it beat. They will have machines that will do the work of the heart while they seal two holes. Then task finished they will place everything where it belongs and set her heart to beating for what I hope is a hundred years.

To do this it will take all the trust I can muster. First I had to believe that this even had to be done. Many test and the confirmation of over 15 doctors made the decision easy. Then I had to trust that these doctors knew what they were doing. You ask questions like what kind of experience do they have, where were they trained, what hospital will the operation be done at. To put someone you loves heart in someone else’s hands you must trust them.

She lies beside me as I type this, the most pleasant baby we have ever had. Sweet with a smile for everybody who speaks to her, the thought of loosing her hangs heavy on my mind. Though the surgery to them is almost routine it still comes with risk and nothing is routine when it comes to my girl’s heart. I am trying to trust but it is not coming easy.

I am finding as many of you who have walked these kinds of roads before me have found that when it comes to trust you must have an anchor, His name is Jesus. To walk dark roads you must know that Jesus has a plan and that His plans do not fail no matter what the outcome. (tough one to write) You must know His history; He has never broken a promise.

You must know His credentials He is the son of God who died for the sins of all mankind. You need to know the anchor cares for you, He does, Jesus loves you and me. Gracie too. You must know He has power to work miracles; Jesus has the power of the entire universe at his fingertips.

Do we know all things; of course not that is where trust comes into play. We as humans want to know and it just flat out scares us when we don’t. Jesus came to cast away all fear and give us peace.

When I think of trust I think of the father standing in the water and his young child on the side of the pool. He calls out to him to jump though the water is way over his head. The child runs and jumps without any hesitation into the loving arms of his father. No fear, total trust.

Tonight as I write I am standing on the side of the pool, my Jesus is standing in the rough waters, in a few short hours He will hold his hand out and I will jump. He will be there, I trust He will.

How can I do it, I have asked myself many times over the last two weeks. I can do not because of the nurses or doctors and certainly not because of machines. No although those things are important the only way I can hand her off is………….

I will hand my girl off, because her heart will be in His hands.