How often we need a small fall, don’t we, to whisper a ‘thank you’
ROBERT CLEMENTS
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]T was a bit of a nasty fall I had one morning. It had been raining all night and yet I decidedto go for my morning walk, and so with umbrella firmly in hand I entered wet deserted park and started a brisk pace. I looked up and saw raindrops nestling on evergreen leaves but did not care to notice they had also snuggled in with mud below and the next moment found myself flying in the air!
It was quite a fall and as I struggled to pick myself up from slippery muck, wondered what I had broken and was happy that except for bruised elbow and slightly twisted hip was nonetheless worse for wear!
“Why?” I asked aloud, “had I been allowed to fall? Wasn’t there a God above who was supposed to look after me?”
It was then I noticed my umbrella handle. The thick steel had bent to a full right angle! It looked quite out of shape and I realized with horror the handle was what had broken my fall and the misshapen steel could well have been my wrist.
“Thank you Father!” I prayed, “thank you for showing you are always there!”
T’was a few days later that my family celebrated the golden wedding anniversary of my in laws. We had traveled to their hometown and my brother- in- law and family had also come down from Dubai where they live.
“Bob!” my mother in law had told me, “Could you plan a thanksgiving service for our anniversary?” And I did just that.
“We’ll sing a song,” I told the children, “and you,” I told my poor brother- in- law who was still trying to unpack, get over his travel fatigue and find a place to keep his luggage, “will speak on such and such a subject!”
As I watched with draconian pleasure everybody getting ready for the big event, a neighbor rushed in, “Quick!” she shouted, “your father- in- law has fallen down stairs! He can’t get up!”
In a flash we were down and managed to get him to sit. He had taken quite a nasty fall and yet despite age, not a bone was broken nor was he bruised!
We managed to get him home and as he put one arm round me and the other round his son and walked, I realized what I had left out of the whole thanksgiving service: I had forgotten to give thanks!
I had forgotten to give thanks to a God above for all the years they had had together, I had forgotten to mention his good health and that of my mother in law despite their increasing years.
His fall reminded me that He above had to be thanked, and that is exactly what we did next day; we had a thanksgiving service that gave thanks!
I look often at my twisted umbrella handle and there are tears in my eyes; I can write this piece because a God above saved my wrist. How often we need a small fall, don’t we, to whisper thank you..!
