Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Urgent Fragments

“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth.’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ So that all men may know his work…” (Job 37:5-7, NIV 1984).

Thanksgiving day. After a great meal, we sat in my sister’s backyard: my father, the retired internist; my brother, the periodontal surgeon; my brother in-law, an internist turned businessman. It was incredibly beautiful, sitting back with kids, grandkids, great grandkids, spouses, looking out over my sister’s back acres, rolling hills, grasslands, great oak and elm, autumn yellows and reds. Life was uniquely whole. Peace blew in gently with the breeze.

There is something about family and nature that brings a settled understanding that life is grand. I should take a dose of both on a regular basis. As doctors we so often get caught up in the complexities of life that our existence becomes a set of little urgent fragments. To walk through the woods on a fall day, to sit with our families talking endlessly about nothing important, to look up from both and bless the God who brings the moment---and those fragments come together as a purposeful whole under God’s design. So much so, that when I return to the world of urgent fragments there is a purpose and meaning that I had missed before my escape.

Take time for your family. Take time for the woods. There is a glory and wholeness in both that each of us needs.

Dear God,
Let me look up from the fragments of life and see your whole.
Amen

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