Human Heartbeat

The human experience for many of us is different.  If you were born in a third world country, you are not experiencing life through my lens of wealth and security.  Experience is an interpretation of a journey, a journey we all take...called life.
But, we all share a heartbeat - blood flows through our veins sustaining us and we all desire to avoid pain.
Last night, I spent the evening listening to my cousin, Lauren, talk about her medical mission trip to Haiti.
As she clicked through the Macbook slide show...our worlds collided.  Eden,  my daughter, recognized her friend's dad in one of the pictures and recalled listening to her tell about his experience as a doctor helping in Haiti.  Brian recognized the very boxes he had packed at Bethel College in Kansas for the food distribution.

We are the human race.  We share a heartbeat.  We share compassion.  We share our lives.
Each slide had a person's story, a story that ended at the clinic or a story of a miracle.  Each member of the medical team had a story.  One doctor had just been told his cancer had returned right before boarding the plane. Doctors from the east coast, doctors from the west coast all meeting at the same time in an airport to offer their training to a hurting country.  All people, characters in a story that stretches from the middle of the land of the brave to the outermost parts of the world - our story as the human race.
Hearts beating to the very rhythm of the blood that flows through them.  The color of the skin, the language spoken, the journey didn't matter - stopping the pain is what mattered - saving a life.
The OR floor contained puddles of blood, the wounds were greater than could be imagined, the children having to be cradled through the pain of their injuries are visuals that will not soon be forgotten.
May God bless our human hearts.