(…continued) Sometimes, when very ill, we will pray for a miracle of healing. The greatest miracle, however, is that every single second of our lives, the body is healing itself, renewing itself, defending itself from infections, and strengthening itself. This great miracle of continuous healing is going on in each of us, all the time, even as we sleep; and, ‘even without our prayer,’ as Luther says in the catechism. Once, at the end of every life, the body does lose its battle to heal itself, and death comes. But this is usually in old age, after years of all these countless incredible bodily functions working together to preserve life. And even then, sometimes when the body is about to lose its battle for life, God does grant an extra miracle and a special healing.
Next week is Thanksgiving. Lewis Smedes told the story of his stroke in an article about gratitude (see yesterday’s meditation). He said that from that stroke, and the healing that took place in the weeks and months that followed, he learned to be grateful to God for the everyday miracles; those gifts of God that are ordinary; all those things that just keep working so well that we don’t even notice. That is why he said in that little conversation with his wife, “An amazing thing happened to me today; I told my left leg to move, and it did.” Smedes knew how helpless he was when that did not happen. Now, he has learned to be grateful, and not take for granted even such a little thing as moving his leg.
Such gratitude is the source of joy and contentment in life. We all too often think that happiness will come in getting the next thing or reaching our next goal. But if one does not have any gratitude for that which is already given, they will never find life satisfying no matter what else is received or accomplished.
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Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
–Aldous Huxley
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Genesis 1:27 — God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Deuteronomy 8:17-18a — You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” (and the ability to move your leg)
II Corinthians 4:16 — Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
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O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: and his mercy endureth for ever.
–Psalm 118:1
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