On being thankful….

I spent time sitting in a hospital waiting room this week while my husband was having a test done.

While I was sitting there, a man came in and was waiting too. His right arm was in a sling.

As people do, when they sit in such places, we exchanged pleasantries…he asked about the knitting project I was working on, I asked about his arm.

Here is his story:

Last week he fell and cracked the bone right below the ball joint of the arm all the way across. He’s in one of those lovely slings that immobilizes the upper arm so it will heal without surgery (hopefully). On Monday morning of this week, he had to rush his wife to the emergency room, and they ended up admitting her for a heart problem. As we were in the waiting room, the doctor came out and told him that his wife is going to have to have open heart surgery, probably tomorrow.

This whole story made me think about a couple of things.

The first is just how lucky we are that my husband has mostly recovered from his arm injury, that he didn’t have more complications with his gall bladder surgery, that I am still healthy enough to be a help instead of an extra burden.

The second was that I hope that man has someone to help him, be it friends or family, because he’s going to have a tough time for a while. I don’t know his name, or his wife’s, but God does, and I’m sure when I pray for that nameless couple, God will get it right.

I’m grateful for what we have, and especially today, I feel the need to say so.