I’m sitting here this evening with a sore knee – probably the result of my “fall” off the seawall along the body of water behind our home earlier this week. On balance, it has been pretty much okay but for some reason, tonight I am really feeling the pain of it more than usual. And I can’t help but be reminded of another time, in early November years ago, when I sustained an injury and dealt with the inconvenience and pain for several months.
In fact, it was on November 3, 1969, 45 years ago this week, that I shattered my lower right leg in physical ed class during the early months of my senior year in high school. I remember it vividly. It was a Monday morning and gym class was from 8:00 until 8:50 am. We were engaged in a complex game and I wasn’t quite as limber as one of my classmates. To be sure, we collided while going for a loose ball and through a freak set of circumstances, I fell and broke my leg in three places – a compound spiral fracture.
The instructor thought that I had maybe sprained my knee and so he ordered me to walk across the school to the attendance office for an early dismissal. The office called my mother and I went outside to wait. She picked me up and it was off to the hospital for x-rays and a temporary cast – two days later, when the initial swelling went down, I was back to the hospital for the full cast that would grace my leg for the next 6 weeks or so.
Aside from the inconvenience of it all, I experienced quite a bit of pain in the beginning and then itching and soreness after that. I wasn’t able to drive and with the winter weather, my toes were cold and I was late to all my classes – hobbling around from place to place. To this day, I can still feel discomfort when the weather changes and I never was good at ice skating or any sort of stress on my leg after that incident.
As I sit here tonight thinking about those days so many years ago, I can’t help but re-live some of the life changing events I have experienced. I have been thinking a great deal about the past recently. That’s because there is a class reunion coming in the spring of next year and I have been inundated with emails about attending. I don’t plan to go but it has been exciting to remember so many things that have happened between then and now. I had no idea that life would be so full of the twists and turns I have lived.
As I look back, I couldn’t have begun to predict the things I have seen and the places I have been. But the Lord knew all about my life even before I was even born. And even though I wasn’t a dedicated follower of Christ in my early years, He knew how my heart would turn toward Him. The verse for tonight is from Jeremiah 29:11-14, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
My encouragement this evening is that God already knows about all the chapters of your life – even though you don’t. My prayer is that you would put your trust in Him and know that although there may be a broken leg or two along the way, in the end, God has your best interests in mind for you. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…