“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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