Saturday, April 8, 2017
Ez. 37:21-28; Ps. 85:1-7; Jn.11:45-53
I got it all wrong this day, or so I thought.
It was an easy winter day, like most winter days tend to be in Florida. So, why not get the chain saw out and cut those fallen limbs cluttering up the yard? Fair enough; but I pushed it. The chain saw ricocheted off the branches, really too flimsy to be cut by this tool. I knew better. The branches knew better. Even the chain saw knew better. So . . . the inevitable happened. The chain saw slipped from my hand, and fell, nicking the pointer finger at the knuckle of the hand that was holding the limb I was working on. It happened in a split second. Oh, that’s bone I’m seeing, I thought. The finger, fortunately, was still attached.
Off to the ER.
After sitting down, I noticed all the people in folding chairs, lining three walls, and I noticed the throbbing pain I felt. But I soon found myself resting my eyes on each person in the room for about 20 seconds at a time, going from one to the next to the next, around the room, again and again. At some point, I felt as if I knew each and every one of them. I gave up words. Words would only have gotten in the way.
The finger never did heal right, but I like that messed up finger best of the ten. I am not sure if God was in the throbbing, but maybe something like that. On the face of it, everything went wrong that day. But, I made a bunch of new friends, even if they didn’t know it.
–Angelo Spoto