There are those who will never die...

It was six o-clock in the morning, or a little after. We were in the Bloc, just finishing with a C-section. I’d come with Dr. Harvey instead of him calling one of the other guys. We were tired. Tired from being woken up early, from the intense focus of the surgery and from standing so long. The surgery had gone well; a healthy baby and the mom doing just fine. 

As we finished up Dr. Harvey cranked up the CD player. I wasn’t paying any special attention to what music might come on, but all of a sudden the familiar sound of ‘Mansion Builder’ by the 2^nd Chapter of Acts filled the operating room, and I rejoiced to hear it. I hadn’t heard that music since I left home, where it had been quite popular in the months prior to my departure. It was the perfect thing for Sunday morning, and brought a special beauty to the scene. 

However, as much as I was enjoying the song, the fact that Marie-Rose (our anesthetist) was singing along, not with the words exactly right, but definitely with joy, completed the moment for me. It reminded me of home, and somehow it reminded her of home too; Rwanda before the genocide. The songs they used to sing in her church there. She told me so. And so we went out singing and welcoming a beautiful Sunday morning as the darkness faded into day.

Mansion Builder

I've been told that there are those
Who will learn how to fly
And I've been told that there are those
Who will never die
And I've been told that there are stars
That will never lose their shine
And that there is a Morning Star
Who knows my mind

So why should I worry?
Why should I fret?
'Cause I've got a Mansion Builder
Who ain't through with me yet

And I've been told that there's a
Crystal lake in the sky
And every tear from my eyes
Is saved when I cry
And I've been told there'll come a time
When the sun will cease to shine
And that there is a Morning Star
Who knows my mind