Psalm 9:1 ESV
Sometimes I get myself in terrible messes.
I seem to have a talent for it.
For example, once I had been trying to fix something and I took a large hammer down from the shelf above the workshop.
I used the hammer and I laid it on top on the left side of the workshop stand. I turned around to get something and somehow or other I knocked the hammer off the workshop stand onto the floor. Normally that would be a huge problem because I could just bend down and pick it up.
However, the hammer fell on the floor behind the freezer which was sandwiched next to the workshop stand.
I went to the kitchen to get a light so I could see exactly where the hammer fell.
There it was, on the floor behind the freezer.since it was full, moving the freezer to get the hammer was not a great option.
I got a chair and schooched it up to the freezer. Once I was on top of the freezer, I laid down as flat as I could and I tried to reach for the hammer. My arms (like my whole body) are about as long as a 3rd or a 4th graders arms. Actually one of my grandsons is in 2nd grade and he’s almost as tall as I am. When I tried to reach the hammer with my hand I was still 2 feet shy of being able to touch it.
Next, since I am an inch shy of being 5’ tall I have a ‘grab it’ stick so I can reach items on the top shelf in the cabinets.
I ran to the kitchen to get the stick.
I was able to wrap the tentacles around the hammer, but the stick wasn’t heavy enough to grab the hammer to pull it up.
I looked to see what I had in the house that I would help me stand the hammer up on the head.
The nearest stick item was an old school mob.
I stuck the mop down near the hammer and I tried to tilt the hammer on its head.
No such luck.
I wasn’t sure where to go from here so I stopped and prayed. I asked God to give me an idea how to get the hammer out from behind the freezer.
Then I pulled the mop stick up.
It was very heavy.
I continued to pull and when I looked down I realized the claw from the hammer was caught up in the in the cotton fibers from the mop head. As I pulled I prayed that they would remain attached.
They did.
I was able to retrieve the hammer from behind the freezer. Or rather, God was able to retrieve the hammer from behind the freezer.
After I had the hammer in my hand, I thanked God for helping me to retrieve the hammer.
Psalm 9:1 tells us, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.”
I was really thankful that I didn’t have to get someone tall, explain why and how the hammer fell behind the freezer, and ask them to retrieve the hammer for me.
What’s amazing is that it’s really a silly story. It’s an example of no consequence. It wasn’t really important.
I could have easily found someone to help me retrieve the hammer.
Instead I prayed and God did it for me.
So…all my life different people have told me they hate to bother God with inconsequential requests.
I tell them it’s really not a bother to God.
God loves us…I mean God really loves us and experiences great joy in helping us when we turn and ask for help.
If I would have thought about asking God first, God might have had a better solution.
I could have actually saved myself some time.
It wasn’t on purpose, but today this silly story has great significance for me.
I was reminded once again that God can do remarkable miracles.
Many many years ago today I was born in Independence, Missouri.
I almost died of pneumonia when I was 6 months old in 1954. My fever was 106.2 for too long and the doctors told my parents there would be severe brain damage if I survived.
My dad prayed. He had been raised in church and he was a Naval Mechanic in W.W. II in the South Pacific and I’m sure he had prayed then, but he said until that day he’d never prayed with his whole heart asking God to help and heal.
God answered.
The fever broke and I survived.
My memory and my eyesight have never been great but With God’s constant help I get by. It takes me longer to memorize things, but with a lot of repetition I can do it. Thanks to modern medicine I have internal lenses and I also wear glasses to help me see.
Today…I thank God that he answered my dad’s prayer in 1954.
I am ever so thankful and I count and recount God’s wonderful deeds!
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: Thank God
Tell God thank you for His deeds for you…count and recount your blessings!
In God, Deborah
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