heart transplant

I remember as a teenager hearing about the first heart transplants.  Dr. Christiaan Bernard of South Africa performed the first human heart transplant to a fellow named Louis Washkansky in December 1967.  Unfortunately the patient only lived a few weeks.  Dr Denton Cooley performed the first transplant in the U.S. about 6 months later and the patient survived 8 months before his body rejected the transplanted heart.  Survival rates are much better these days, with about 70% of transplant recipients living 5 years and one gentleman has survived 29 years and is still going strong!   But you wouldn't think our Creator would design the need for a heart transplant into our lives, would you?  This morning the following scripture stood out to me:  Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.   It occurs that the Lord has been doing successful heart transplant surgery for a long time.  Apparently the strongest anti-rejection drug is the Holy Spirit, which allows the new tender heart to not only avoid rejection, but to thrive.  In a way you might say that the donor of this new heart is the Lord Himself.  It wasn't a car accident that made that great heart available, but He did lay down His life that we might experience a change that can most accurately be described as living with a new heart...a heart from God.   blessings, Rob Smith