Graft in Our Hearts

One of my best childhood buddies at Camp Winnataska exhibited some odd behavior. Now, I’m not one to talk, as I once caused quite a fuss when I got splashed in a canoe because I was supposed to be in the dry boat (I know, I know I was am a dork!). My friend, Stephen, was odd in some other ways though. He moved from Tennessee to Arizona, but kept coming back to camp every summer, and so he had a different accent than everyone else. He was not used to the humidity, so he took way too many showers for camp. Plus, there was something else.

During a trip up to Gatlinburg, TN Stephen had gotten his ankle caught in one of the ski lift chairs. As a result of the emergency accident he had to have immediate surgery. The doctors had to take a section of his skin from his buttocks to cover his torn up ankle. Not only would my friend readily show the gruesome ankle injury, he was known to show from whence that flesh had initially come (at least in the boys’ cabin)! This was the first time I had ever heard of a skin graft and to this day this type of procedure fascinates me.

I am struck by the fact that doctors can take skin from one part of our body and use it to patch another part of us. I am amazed that surgeons acting quickly can harvest the organs from a deceased person to give life to another human. I am uplifted by the enormous number of people that show up to give blood to help others when disasters strike. While I do not understand all of the nuances of the science behind these life-giving events, I can (and we all can) marvel at the gift that comes from someone making a sacrificial gift and life-saving action for someone else. I wonder if this works on a spiritual level as well.

This coming Sunday’s Collect (opening prayer) has some real beauty within it:
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, 233, Italics added for emphasis.)

In particular the italicized part halts me. The word graft calls to mind those life-giving efforts that require skill, speed, and care. When we pray that God graft in our hearts the love of God’s Name we are undergoing a spiritual procedure that may manifest itself in multitudinous ways! The love that God plants in our hearts will hopefully “increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works.” However, what I take away from this is not these potentially fantastic results, but a realization about the One who places this love in the first place.

God loves us so much and so freely that God was willing not just to take our own flesh to graft in our hearts, but to place God’s own flesh within us! God came to dwell here among us to show us the way back to home to God, to make all things holy, and to show us the fullest extent of love. The procedure that all of Creation underwent when Jesus exhibited a love that was and is stronger than sin, separation, and even death was and is an eternal grafting of this type of love on our hearts and into the very fabric of the universe. May we all be so bold as to remember that our hearts, our souls, our bodies, and our entire selves are not merely our own, but are our God’s and possess within their being the imprint of God's love. Within us God grafted the love that exists eternally may we allow it to grow and transform us!