Recently our little home was rocked by the Husband’s sudden health challenges. At the height of diagnoses unconfirmed, he wrote vulnerably, sharing his sobering realisation of our human frailty. |
Sitting in a hospital room with my face tripping, not being able to smile laugh, let alone smile, and it hit me.
If I have a neuro-degenerative condition that doesn’t improve but worsens with time, I may never be able to work again.
I may never be able to smile again.
I may never be able to look at my children in the eye, laugh at something funny that happened during the day, or share the joy of my girl.
I may never be able to listen to a patient’s concerns and frown properly to share his pain.
That’s only if my facial nerves don’t improve.
What if the brain becomes involved and it’s my ability to walk or breathe that becomes affected?
Ever since I had my knee surgery due to sports injuries I’ve always treated each day with respect. It dawned on me that it really is God who gives us our health every day. If it wasn’t for His grace I wouldn’t even be breathing or thinking.
I suppose one could look at suffering as some sort of punishment from God at worst, or at best, the indifference of an uncaring God. If you’re an atheist, then it would all boil down to complete randomness; mere psychological and physiological processes, rolls of the dice each day where it could sometimes be good and sometimes be bad, but without much meaning or purpose behind what you are experiencing.
I don’t see it that way.
If I’m healthy, it’s a blessing. I don’t deserve any of this. I don’t deserve the ability to think, reason, breathe, or move. Somehow deep down I know I’m actually a sinful and a totally deprived human being. If it wasn’t for the inherent worth God grants to us as human beings, I would just be another member of the human species with no intrinsic value either. I would have to just believe that I was worth something because I chose to believe it, not because it was necessarily true.
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…”
(Romans 3:23)
So as I ponder my loss in my ability to speak, communicate, laugh, or smile; I’m reminded of the gift of today.
Today is not guaranteed in any sense of the word, and today could be cut short at a moment’s notice.
The only one who knows the beginning and end of my life is the Creator of the universe who loves me so much and has given Himself for my life.
Reflection: |
- What about you? Have you ever felt an uncertainty so great that it produces fear about your tomorrow?
- Do you agree that health is a blessing, and that life is really beyond the span of our control, and that nothing in life is for keeps? Would love to hear your thoughts below.