As I type this title onto my blog I realize that the word “hold” can have two meanings. To hold can mean to support and also to stop.
The English language often confuses us and a “hold-up” is not something we want to experience. Yet to hold something precious, like a child is a gift we would not refuse.
But what I really wanted to share with you is a thought I had about my hip surgery two years ago. It was a real learning curve.
I am not a “sit-down” person, although a good book can keep me in a chair for hours. Learning to let things go and just relax was very difficult. Dragging a walker around for six weeks, then a cane for several months, really put a damper on my activities.
After my surgery the doctor had appeared at my hospital bed and announced that we’d almost waited too late…and the reason I had to be especially careful after surgery was because my femur had broken. At my six week check up the doctor showed me my X-ray and how he had used “girders” to hold the bone together. I could see the metal circles on his screen.
It made me think about how many other things had happened in my life and I had been “girded” up…mostly by my religious beliefs. Loss of loved ones takes a terrible toll…loss of friends, loss of business, home, etc. all create their own breakages and healing often needs more than just time. It needs the girders of God’s continuing love.
Like arms, God’s girders encircle your concern and support you in your vulnerability. It also allows you to reassess your strengths and weaknesses…granting you wisdom in decision making.
Sometimes God sends us friends as girders, sometimes family, but often it is scripture that will fill in those empty spaces. He never forsakes us.
So I accept the fact I can no longer race on my two legs to the corner store, but I can get there…eventually, and I thank God for the girders in my leg and the girders of His love in my everyday life.
Image: By Sam Caplat (https://www.flickr.com/photos/samcaplat/4521089467) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
