As I have written in several venues recently, my mother's heart valve replacement surgery was a great success. I realize technology is a wonderful thing. It is still amazing to think that doctors can open our bodies, stop our hearts and repair the valves and arteries within it and us. The science of medicine is one of God's great gifts to us.

While pondering this amazing surgery, it strikes me that as great as it is - it is still a repair job. My mother's heart still bears the scars of a previous attack on the heart. It is still a muscle that reflects her 81 years of life.

God is not confined by our science of medicine. When speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, he says to the Israelites, "cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!"

God's promise to each of us as we turn from an old way of life is something new, something wonderful, something amazing - a new life, a new person, and a healthy and restored relationship with our creator. I trust you will not labor with an old heart and old way of life when God's offer to you and to me is something far better - a new heart and spirit.