This week found me at doctor and dentist offices. Kids had a cold; I have a terrible head cold. In between sickness on Monday and more by Thursday night we all felt good enough to go to the beach and I was up for several good runs. But as I lay in bed yesterday I could hardly remember what it felt like to feel good.
It's funny how when you are feeling sick or under the weather it is hard to remember what health feels like. I lay there in bed and think how can I feel so badly when yesterday I was hitting the pavement on a 5+ mile run? And in a few days I will be all better and get out there again.
It reminds me of that verse in James "If any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass (mirror): for he beholds himself and goes his way, and immediately forgets what manner of man he is." (James 1:23, 24)
We forget so quickly... not just about what we look like, or about how it feels to be in good health, but about everything. God gets us through one trial and is so faithful, and then we face another trial and we go to pieces, forgetting that God will get us through this one, too.
Over 8 days during the Christmas and New Year's holiday I was with my Mom for three emergency room visits and two hospital stays. She felt horrible. So many people prayed for answers and a return to health. She got better and within days returned to her normal routines. Sickness feels so far away when we are feeling better.
This morning, though I am not all better yet, I am thankful for the amount of excellent health I usually enjoy. James continues his thoughts about obedience to the Word by adding: "But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." ( James 1:25)
I want to remember. Not just how good it feels to be in good health. But I want to remember that God is faithful "in sickness and in health," to His people. He is Lord of it all. He is able to make grace abound to us in both.
So, for today, I will sit before this fire - the one in my hearth, and the one in my heart, and I will remember that I am a woman in need of grace - in sickness and in health - and I will be grateful that "His mercies and new every morning."
With Love
