Covenant and Circumcision

I know, a strange title but that is where I am at…..I am in a bible study right now and the topic is covenant. My oldest son is having surgery tomorrow for a condition called hypospadias. Hypospadias is when the urethra opens on the penis instead of at the top. This isn’t a twin thing or even a preemie thing; it just happens to 1 to 3 in 1,000 boys in the US. There are three degree’s of hypospadias and Vaughn has the second degree, where the opening is along the underside of the shaft of the penis. Because the foreskin is generally used in the reconstruction, Vaughn wasn’t circumcised when he left the NICU. After the hypospadias is fixed, the doctor will then be able to circumcise him.

I trust God; I trust the Covenant making and covenant keeping God that I serve. The same God that established a covenant with Noah and Abraham and sent his Son to be the final or new covenant for us. I was having dinner with some dear friends a couple weeks ago and the topic of circumcision came up as one of the ladies has twin boys and the other has boy/girl twins so we all have little men, and the question was, why do we still circumcise? I know why we did with Asher and plan to do with Vaughn tomorrow and took the opportunity to share some of my thoughts and background on it. Circumcision is a sign of the covenant that we read about in Genesis 17. It was a cut in the flesh (closest to the site of paternity) so the descendents would remember the covenant cut with Abraham and his seed. It was a sign of obedience and of belonging. Once circumcised the man would be identified as one of God’s chosen people forever and as a symbol of purifying one’s heart and dedicating oneself to God. Now I know we live under the new covenant but for us it was a way of remembering our heritage, our background, who and where we come from. It may be an old tradition but it still has significant meaning to me and I am thankful that Abraham believed God and entered into covenant with Him thus allowing us to know and learn about where our traditions come from.

God showed his favor on us today as we spoke to nurses and assistants trying to organize the procedures for tomorrow. The eye doctor wants to look at Vaughn’s left eye while he is under anesthesia to get a better look at what is going on. I mentioned at his last appointment that he would already be having surgery on the 13^th of November and would it be possible to look then. She thought that was a great idea and would try to schedule her patients around his surgery time. I called today to follow up to make sure that this was still part of the plan and found out that she is out of town at a conference along with the other optometrists at Children’s. There is only one optometrist working tomorrow and she is already scheduled to be in surgery at the time of Vaughn’s surgery. Her assistant was very kind and told me that she would try to do everything she could to make this happen. After we hung up our PT was here so I wasn’t able to stop and pray….. I just simply said under my breath, Lord- Take care of this. She called at 4:15 today and told me to buy a lottery ticket that it was my lucky day. She was able to get both doctors on the phone so they could agree to let the eye doctor go first so she could start in our OR as the other surgery that she is scheduled for, her part is at the end of the surgery! She said that this never happens and was so happy that she was calling to say that Vaughn’s eye would be looked at tomorrow. As I mentioned previously, our pediatrician would like to do some genetic testing on Vaughn and it was Jerad’s idea to see if they could draw the blood that was needed for this testing while Vaughn was already under anesthesia. Our pedestrian’s nurse called at 4:30 today telling me the script had been signed and sent to urology asking them to draw blood on Vaughn for this testing. Thank you Father for orchestrating all of these departments and establishing your plans for Vaughn.

Vaughn goes into surgery at 11:45 tomorrow, would you pray for not only Vaughn but Jerad and I also. That we would be full of peace and that the Holy Spirit would go ahead of us and be there before, during and after his surgery. For Asher too as this will be the first time the twins have been apart. My Mom is coming to pick him up and watch him until Wednesday.  Throughout the Word of God, the word blood carries great significance…..may the Lamb of God be ever present during Vaughn’s surgery.