Memorial Box Monday

In honor of my dear friend Linn Saunders, I am going to follow her lead by writing on Mondays about God's faithfulness both past and present.  It is actually Sunday night - but our furniture arrives in Chicago on Monday and I won't have internet until Tuesday -so I'm jumping in early this week.  I wanted to think back to one of my earliest memories of God intervening on my behalf.  So here goes . . .

When I was in the 5th grade, I was out riding horses at my grandfather's farm.  The lot was muddy and my cousin was sitting behind me.  The horse slipped and we both fell off in the mud.  I was still holding onto the reins and so the horse ended up going back over me.  My Dad and granddad hurried over and got both my cousin and I out of there.  I seemed to okay - just had a stomach ache and a sore leg.  It was Sunday, so my family headed away from the farm toward home in Houston.  As we were driving through Temple, my mom looked in the backseat at me and I was completely white.  She and my Dad decided to stop at the emergency room of Scott and White hospital to make sure I was okay.  As it turned out, my spleen was broken in half and I had been bleeding internally for several hours. They ended up doing emergency surgery to remove it - a truly near death experience.  I was in the hospital for about 2 weeks and remember receiving lots of cards and notes - especially from my home church.  I also remember seeing people in a lot worse shape than I was and being thankful.  What a great lesson to learn at the age of 10!

When I look back at that experience, I think how very easily my parents could have driven on and I could have died.  Apparently, the Lord had a plan and it wasn't my time to exit.  I remind myself of that often.  I'm here for a purpose and I want to live that out to the fullest.  I try to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is saying each and every day. I don't want to miss anything.  I have had such a rich life.  I don't need an object to remind me of this event because I have a scar from my abdomen to my chest!  It is ugly - but is beautiful.  This scar is a sign of LIFE.  My Savior, Jesus, has some scars too.   Those scars are ugly - but they are beautiful.  Those scars are LIFE.  Thank you Jesus for sparing my life.  May I live it in a way that is worthy of your gift.