Today at church, when we first got to worship team practice, my hubby had what could be called a "packaging incident." He was trying to open a package that housed a cord for a guitar. It was attached to a card and held there by those thick plastic bands that make it impossible to open anything ...unless you have bolt-cutters or something. The only thing available was a bread-knife. He remembered to cut away from his body, but when the first plastic tie gave way, and the knife took off like a racehorse out of the gate, his left pinky finger got in the way and he sliced it to the bone, diagonally across the side of one joint.
Boy did it bleed! In spite of hurried first aid given on site, the 3/4-iinch wound kept opening up and bleeding all over him. Finally I decided enough was enough and announced to the shocked worship team members that I was going to take him to out-patients. I was in the process of taking him to the hospital when the bleeding stopped. We decided that it would be such a long wait at the hospital just to put a stitch or two in, that we just went home, got his bloody shirt and pants into the wash as soon as we could, and I was able to apply a proper dressing to the cut.
As a result, and after a change of clothes, we were able to attend church this morning (we were a few minutes late), so of course, we were not there in time for him to be on the team. Someone else had taken over his instrument.
It turned out that this was one of those God-things. Hubby needed to be in the congregation today, because there was something he needed to deal with at the altar that he never would have been able to do while he was on the platform playing his instrument!
The incident and its results got me thinking about the little things in our lives that we don't think anything about: these are things we don't think are important, but they turn out to be pivotal in the grand scheme of things.
God cared whether my honey was on the platform or not. He dovetailed all the things that happened today so that he and I were freed from ministry obligations. God worked it out so that he could pay attention to his spiritual needs. Not only that, but the worship leader asked the congregation (about 5 minutes before we arrived) to bear with the team because they were a little short this morning - and told them we'd gone to the hospital ... and why. So after church there were all kinds of people coming up to us, and asking him how he was doing. It was such a little thing but it gave people an opportunity to show their love. And it brought home to both of us how God is not only interested in the tiny things of our lives, but also how He can use the strangest things to accomplish what He wants done in not just one person's life but also in so many others'.
When I was a little girl, going to Sunday School, I loved the song, "God Sees the Little Sparrow Fall." The idea of God caring for even the little things of this world was conveyed through that song, and it stayed with me as I grew. Over the years, again and again I have been reminded of Jesus' words about how His Father saw the little sparrow when it fell to the ground. And how He said, "Do not fear, then. You are of more value than many sparrows."
I remember saying yesterday that the widow of Stuart Hamblin (long-time gospel songwriter) is known to have said, "People talk about this thing being sacred and that thing being secular. I don't think it's that way. I think it's all sacred. Everything in life, everything we do and say is sacred."
Even a packaging incident.
Boy did it bleed! In spite of hurried first aid given on site, the 3/4-iinch wound kept opening up and bleeding all over him. Finally I decided enough was enough and announced to the shocked worship team members that I was going to take him to out-patients. I was in the process of taking him to the hospital when the bleeding stopped. We decided that it would be such a long wait at the hospital just to put a stitch or two in, that we just went home, got his bloody shirt and pants into the wash as soon as we could, and I was able to apply a proper dressing to the cut.
As a result, and after a change of clothes, we were able to attend church this morning (we were a few minutes late), so of course, we were not there in time for him to be on the team. Someone else had taken over his instrument.
It turned out that this was one of those God-things. Hubby needed to be in the congregation today, because there was something he needed to deal with at the altar that he never would have been able to do while he was on the platform playing his instrument!
The incident and its results got me thinking about the little things in our lives that we don't think anything about: these are things we don't think are important, but they turn out to be pivotal in the grand scheme of things.
God cared whether my honey was on the platform or not. He dovetailed all the things that happened today so that he and I were freed from ministry obligations. God worked it out so that he could pay attention to his spiritual needs. Not only that, but the worship leader asked the congregation (about 5 minutes before we arrived) to bear with the team because they were a little short this morning - and told them we'd gone to the hospital ... and why. So after church there were all kinds of people coming up to us, and asking him how he was doing. It was such a little thing but it gave people an opportunity to show their love. And it brought home to both of us how God is not only interested in the tiny things of our lives, but also how He can use the strangest things to accomplish what He wants done in not just one person's life but also in so many others'.
When I was a little girl, going to Sunday School, I loved the song, "God Sees the Little Sparrow Fall." The idea of God caring for even the little things of this world was conveyed through that song, and it stayed with me as I grew. Over the years, again and again I have been reminded of Jesus' words about how His Father saw the little sparrow when it fell to the ground. And how He said, "Do not fear, then. You are of more value than many sparrows."
I remember saying yesterday that the widow of Stuart Hamblin (long-time gospel songwriter) is known to have said, "People talk about this thing being sacred and that thing being secular. I don't think it's that way. I think it's all sacred. Everything in life, everything we do and say is sacred."
Even a packaging incident.
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