I recently visited a large rehabilitation hospital for patients dealing with spinal cord injuries, strokes and traumatic brain trauma. As I walked  toward my car I noticed two young men in wheelchairs chatting near the entrance. I overheard a snippet of conversation that rocked my day. The tone was not bitter nor sad. This is the sentence I overheard.

“I would give it all up just to be able to scuba dive one more time.”

What this young man once did without thought or difficulty now was a nearly impossible dream. My heart was pierced. Just that morning I had fussed about a balky hip and yet I was walking freely to my car. I often thought about an aching shoulder but I had freedom to lift and move. All of us take so much for granted. Since that encounter I think of that young man when my hip or shoulder aches. I say a quick prayer of thanksgiving for the health I am blessed with today. But this awareness will wear off. It always does. That makes me sad. But it also makes me human.

Jesus knows all about our frailties. How we worry about things that really don’t matter.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” Matthew 6, NLT

My friend Ray Pritchard posted a little prayer years ago that I loved so much that my wife got it framed. It sits by my bathroom sink and I need to review it more closely each morning.

Heavenly Father,

You are in charge of everything that will happen to me today – the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the positive and the negative. Please make me thankful for everything that happens to me today.

Amen