God's Grand Design and Roughhousing With Teenagers

The human body is an amazing thing. Some might say 'Well Jerry, that's not particularly insightful...' and you would be correct. I really haven't given much thought to this until recently. I generally give God props for amazing things when I am looking at magnificence in nature. This past summer my daughter and I went to South Dakota and saw the Badlands. It was truly beautiful, amazing, and awe inspiring. A few years ago I was in Utah in the summer and took a tram to the top of the mountain at Snowbird. I had the same feeling there, being able to see for miles and viewing things that were magnificent beyond anything I could imagine. Anyone who doesn't believe in God needs to spend some time in places like these and try and explain away the grandeur as a cosmic accident.

One of my shortcomings is that I fail to see God's beauty in the small details of everyday events. Well, I just got a not so subtle reminder of these things. This is a warning for all you men who have teenage sons...resist the temptation to roughhouse with them. Here is the difficult truth (ignore it at your peril); when kids fall they bounce, when middle aged men fall they break. Needless to say I learned this lesson the hard way.

My soon to be 16 year old son gave me a body check from behind and I went down. It wasn't all that hard and the intent certainly wasn't to injure. But as the 'truth' was stated above something broke. I know am the proud owner of a fractured ulna. It's really not serious, in fact I'm not even in a cast, but the range of motion in my elbow and ability to rotate my wrist are severely restricted, and will be for several weeks.

What does this have to do with God's grand design?

The reason I don't see God in the everyday things of life is because I take so much for granted. Like I stated above it is one of my biggest shortcomings. The ability to grasp and pull, rotate our hand (like using a screwdriver), threading a belt through the loops in our pants, pulling socks on, etc. etc. Since I can't do these things very well right now I have spent a little time thinking about our (human beings) design.

Think about all the complex movements of our hand, wrist, and elbow. Simple activities we do over and over again without thinking...washing our hands, brushing our teeth, picking up a glass from the table, raising it to our lips and taking a drink. This one extremity does an infinite number of complex movements, both independently and in concert with each other. I'm beginning to see this with the same awe and wonder as the Badlands. Currently this awe and wonder is generously delivered with a shot of searing pain every time I try and do these activities with my left arm.

Thankfully I'm right handed.