A Gift For You
The phone call—the call everyone hoped
for, and everyone dreaded—came at 2:00 am.
“We have a heart for Brody*,” the voice said.
Everyone hoped for the call because 12-yearold Brody had been on the heart transplant list
for many days, and before long his condition
would deteriorate to the point where he would
no longer be considered a good candidate for
a heart transplant. When that happened, he
would be removed from the list, taking with
it his last hope. But on this day, Brody and his
family were about to receive an incredible gift–
the gift of a new heart, the gift of a new life.
The Bible tells us that we are all in a situation
more desperate than Brody’s, for more than this
life is at stake. We have earned eternal death,
because “The wages of sin is death,” (Romans
6:23) and “[We] all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). When we
understand the original Greek in the latter
verse, we realize how desperate our situation
is. The Greek words translated “fall short”
indicate a continuing action—we continue
to fall short. Sin is not just about past actions,