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Seeking Things Above


If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1)

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2008-03-24

Father Knows Best: Fragile - Handle with Care

x-ray broken arm
My four year old daughter broke her arm yesterday on Easter Sunday. I'm told the fracture is somewhere in the circled area in the above picture. I'll have to trust the doctors. The accident wasn't the result of an Easter Egg hunt gone crazy. However, it was just as innocent as she fell while playing tag with her brothers and sisters.

We were all enjoying a peaceful Easter afternoon with the laughter of children in the background when suddenly the laughter stopped and the crying started. At first it sounded like any other tumble, a scraped knee or bruised elbow. However, it soon became apparent that this was more serious and we were in for an Easter evening at the emergency room.

Life is fragile. We can go from laughter and playing to pain and crying in an instant. A broken arm is minor compared to other things that can break in our life. A loved one gets cancer or someone we love is hurt or dies in a car wreck. Laughter can turn to tears in an instant. Why is life so fragile?

I could walk you through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and show you how God created a perfect world, how man blew it by believing the devil over God, how God intervened to repair our broken world, and what the future holds when our world is finally restored. However that would be a book, not a blog post. So what's a good blog response?

If you're a father, you know there is only so much you can do to protect your children. What's even harder is that you also know that they often don't want your protection. However, when they break a bone or get a broken heart, they run back to you to help pick up the pieces.

God could certainly keep my life pain free. However, how much faith would I have if I never had to deal with pain? If I manage to take God for granted and ignore his wisdom when I know my life could break apart at any point, how faithless would I be if I never knew what pain was like?

Don't misunderstand my point. God does not put pain in our life in order keep us coming back to Him. We (mankind) brought pain in this world with our own decisions. However, our Father is there to put us back together again, if only we run back to Him.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post. I've wondered in the past if the occasional high fever or broken bone isn't God's way of gently reminding us of our utter reliance upon him to take care of our kids.

Your post reminded me of that great CS Lewis quote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Ryan

Anonymous said...

Tony,

Great post. Reminds me of a story of my own kids. I have 3 and they were playing on the bed while I was on the computer a few years ago.

My oldest was on top of the clothes basket on the bed with his sister trapped inside the upside down basket. One minute they are playing, the next minute off goes my oldest into the floor square on his shoulder. I heard this very loud *SNAP*. And then he screamed.

Scared the stuffing out of me. He had broken his collar bone.

So I do like all good parents and blame this on the computer!

Hey, thanks for stopping by my blog as well. I've added your site to my favorites and will be checking in regularly.

In Christ,
Chris

P.S. How did your Family Matters seminar go?

Tony said...

Chris\Ryan -

Thanks for stopping by.

Our church's Family Matters seminars start in May. I'm sure I'll get some great ideas for discussion here.

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