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Lucky… or Divine?

By July 29, 2018August 30th, 2022Devotional

On numerous occasions during the last 13 weeks, I have been quick to say that although I sustained a bad leg injury, things could have been much worse. I fell between two dumpsters and could have easily cracked my head and even killed myself. Or, I could have broken my femur; or suffered injuries to both legs instead of just one. In a nutshell, I believe that God was looking after me and protected me from more serious harm.

I even remember being on the ground, looking up at the clouds, and saying a small prayer of appreciation that I wasn’t injured worse. After all, there were no bones sticking out of my jeans and I didn’t see blood anywhere – so I assumed that I had maybe sprained my knee.

But the next day, the doctor’s suspicions were confirmed when the MRI and x-ray revealed the need for surgery to repair a nasty tear in my leg. Through the next nine days, all the way up to the moment of surgery, I was divinely calm – meaning that there was something “other worldly” about my situation that gave me more peace than I would normally have under these circumstances. I am a terrible patient and even worse when it comes to going “under the knife.”

Of course, my family prayed for me before surgery and numerous times since then, I have looked heavenward and thanked God that things weren’t worse. I wholeheartedly acknowledge that God was watching over me and things could have turned out much different than they did.

Sure, I have had my ups and downs since the accident. I am tired of the repetition of physical therapy and I wish that I could go upstairs and downstairs with ease, but that just isn’t the case quite yet. The brace did come off this week, which is a blessing, and now strength conditioning begins in earnest. It’s just a matter of time before I am back to normal – or a new “normal” – whatever that may be when I am fully healed.

So as I walked into church this weekend, the senior pastor came up to me and noticed that I didn’t have my brace on. He made a comment about my increasing mobility and we had a nice conversation before the service began. As we were ending our chat, I remarked that things could have been so much worse; and that I had been very “lucky.” He turned to me, smiled and remarked that it was probably divine intervention.

Of course I know that, but it struck me at that moment that I had actually used the work “lucky” – never thinking for a moment that my limited injury was the result of anything but divine intervention. And since I have know the pastor for more than 20 years, it never occurred to me that he may think that I actually believed I was “lucky.” But that’s what I said – I was a little embarrassed.

Since then, I have been thinking about my words and how important it is to always make sure that we credit God for those things in our lives that we truly believe are a result of His divine intervention. Janet and I openly live our lives that way but this time I slipped up. And I missed an opportunity to give credit to God – even though I know in my heart that He was watching over me. It was an important reminder that no matter where I am, or who I am speaking with, I must wear my faith on my sleeve at all times.

The verse for tonight affirms that God is the great healer. We are told by the psalmist in Psalm 30:2, “O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.” My encouragement this evening is that there is no doubt that God is capable of healing any of us at any time. My prayer is that we will boldly proclaim the omnipotence of the Trinity and God’s power and might in things that may seem insignificant in the grander scheme of things. After all, we are all important to God, having been made in His image! Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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