A Day of Blessings

Yesterday was a day of true blessings. In actuality, it would seem nothing good happened; which is the absolution of grace, and a reminder to rejoice in all things- all things.

The day started (or ended in my case) fairly normal. I left work on time, got home on time, had some eggs and cheese, played with the boys for a few minutes, and headed off to bed. It was a gray morning and heavy storms were in the offing for the afternoon, so I was trying to get as much sleep as I could in the event we had to run for cover later. Good plan...

I don't know if Shelly told me or not, I have no idea, but she took the kids up to the playground to play with Tracy's "girlfriend" and spend some time with Courtney. Given the approaching storms, everyone would be stuck inside later in the day. This got everyone out to burn off some extra energy and, since she is very much pregnant, allowed Courtney some time to vent with Shelly. I'm sure that was all needed. Good plan...

Seemingly we are always wrought with good plans. You see, once at the park, Gray finally decided to take a shot at the monkey bars. As I hear it went down, he fell off the monkey bars. Can you guess what happened next? Yep, another broken arm. Left wrist, above the growth plate, both bones, required reduction. Poor kid.

Thankfully this time he had not had anything to eat or drink just before he fell. This allowed the doctors to move pretty quickly and get him to sleep and set the wrist. We got to the hospital about 12:15 and they had it set by 2:20. By 2:45 or so he was awake and he and I headed off to post reduction x-ray. 3:30, Gray was in tears ready to go home, and we had our discharge papers in hand. Then the tornado alarms went off. Poor kid.

So we waited through the storm just to see the lower level of the hospital parking garage flood to the point we couldn't leave. I think we finally left the hospital about 5:45.

In the meantime some pretty amazing things happened. First, Nashville was struck by terrible flooding and at least one tornado. We were safely tucked in a hospital building completely safe. Second, having made no preparations for such a day, the kids without food were provided fresh bread sticks by a family who had purchased two packages and not even opened them. Finally, when the flooding issue in the parking garage had been resolved sufficiently to get the cars out, most of the heavy rain had left the area, making the drive home much less treacherous. Plus, in all of the flooding and storms no one was seriously injured or killed.

So even though my buddy's arm was broken, even though I only got an hour-and-a-half's sleep, even though the boys were fussy and tired when we got home, and even though I've been at work all night after yesterday, I am reminded to rejoice.

Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV) "4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Good plan.