Free Bird

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  “. . . A light broke in upon my brain,—  It was the carol of a bird;  It ceased, and then it came again,  The sweetest song ear ever heard,  And mine was thankful till my eyes  Ran over with the glad surprise,  And they that moment could not see  I was the mate of misery.  But then by dull degrees came back  My senses to their wonted track;  I saw the dungeon walls and floor  Close slowly round me as before,  I saw the glimmer of the sun  Creeping as it before had done,  But through the crevice where it came  That bird was perched, as fond and tame,  And tamer than upon the tree;  A lovely bird, with azure wings,  And song that said a thousand things,  And seemed to say them all for me!  I never saw its like before,  I ne’er shall see its likeness more;  It seemed like me to want a mate,  But was not half so desolate,  And it was come to love me when  None ...

"I'm glad that I don't have that heart anymore."

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"Dr. Christian Barnard tells of one of his heart-transplant patients asking to see the newly removed organ. Obligingly, the doctor brought from the laboratory the large bottle where the old heart had been placed. As the man looked at the bug muscle which once pumped life through his body, the famed surgeon suddenly realized that this was the first time in human experience that a person had ever seeen his own heart.

It was indeed a historic moment. But for the patient the sensation must have been even more moving, for the old heart was worn out. Had it not been replaced, life would soon have been extinct.

After a long pause, the grateful man looked up and said, 'I'm glad that I don't have that heart anymore.'"

Coleman, Robert. Written in Blood: A Devotioal Study on the Blood of Christ. New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1972.

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