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The Blessing

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God

Romans 8:28


A blessing has dropped into my life; or rather I dropped into a blessing.

When Covid initially mandated that we all stay home my wife and I developed an outdoor exercise course - largely intended to get our two boys outside to burn some energy.  One of the things we added was a 25' climbing rope hung from a tree in our woods (as hind sight usually provides I now have full clarity that maintenance and routine inspection should have been something to not neglect).   

On Thursday, 20 October shortly before noon I decided to run through the course quickly before meeting friends for lunch.  After I reached the top of the climbing rope the portion wrapped around the tree limb broke and I fell approximately 20' to the ground.

I could tell my back was hurt, but I was able to move and actually stood up right after the fall.  However, my right foot was not able to support my weight and I fell back to the ground.  As I rolled over and attemtped to raise up on my hands and knees I realized my left wrist was also useless.

At that point I began crawling on my knees and elbows to the house some few hundred feet away.

As I crawled I remember saying over and over "Jesus please help me; God I need  you".  Now, a few weeks later I realize that those words are as true today (and every day) as they were during that short journey.

Of course He is always with me.  

Thankfully my father-in-law lives nearby and after I reached the house and called him he rushed over to drive me to the emergency room.  The wonderful folks at Ball Hospital were amazing and quickly got me the help I needed.  

The doctors found that my right foot was broken, my left wrist was broken and I had a compression fracture in my back.  And they were happily surprised that given the distance I fell those were my only injuries.

I don't yet fully understand why this blessing came my way.
But I can see the hand of God in it all.

  • I was home alone
  • My wife was out of town and my kids would have been picked up by my father-in-law
  • No one would have had any reason to look for me until later that evening if I had remained at the base of the tree
  • I was able to move, crawl and get to a phone
  • I did not hit my head nor did I lose consciousness
So, I'm taking things more slowly.
And I'm thankful that I'm able to sit here and write this.

God is so Good!

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