Our Bodies, Amazing! by Rev. Janet Stobie

Our summer series of articles from guest bloggers continues with Rev. Janet Stobie

Our Bodies, Amazing!

Last month we received this email from my son, who lives in China: “Later today I’m having surgery on my lower back to fuse some vertebrae. I’ll be the bionic man. They’re going to use Titanium.” He hadn’t been complaining about back pain so we were shocked and then worried. Back surgery is always scary. Four days later, we were surprised to learn that he was up, walking. In three weeks, he flew home. Amazing!

When my grandson was three he shut a door on his hand. One of his little fingers was severed from the last joint. My daughter rushed Chris and the finger to the hospital. The doctor literally glued that finger back together. Within a few months the finger was totally healed.

Responsibilities, worries, busyness, can cause us to forget that our bodies are awesome. I know that I often begrudge the time for sleep, because I have too much living to do. We’re often dissatisfied with our bodies. We want to be thinner, taller, stronger. If only our hair was straight, or curly, thicker or thinner. We each have our complaints.

For the next month I encourage you to take time to appreciate the wonder of your body. When you get up each morning, instead of complaining about work to be done, or loneliness to be endured, give God thanks for your eyelashes that protect your eyes so skillfully. Give thanks for knees that still bend at least a little, for skin that miraculously heals after scrapes and cuts, for fingers that feel the smoothness of satin and the coarseness of sand. Make a list of the wonders of your human body. You too will be amazed.

“I praise you, God, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” Psalm 139:14

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With the encouragement of her congregations, four years ago Jan published her first book of short stories which has sold out. Jan writes a monthly devotional for a local newspaper and is welcomed as a storyteller at fundraisers and group meetings. Jan is married. Together she and Tom have five grown children and seven grandchildren. Visit her blog