Is God Here?

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

       Some have said, “What happened?”  Others said, “Are you all right?”  I guess it was obvious that something took place that changed the course of my life over the past two months.  It all began on a Saturday afternoon with some chills, a nap and then sliding out of bed and landing on the floor.  That episode was going to repeat itself at 2:15 in the morning which would eventually result in the men in the red truck coming and taking me to the Emergency Room.  I didn’t know what was going on except that I was weak and stuck on a hospital bed in the ER for the next day and a half.  The VA was full and transferring patients to this hospital so couldn’t go over there.  One thing led to another and I learned new terms such as “sepsis.”  It meant that things were going on in my bloodstream as an infection raged through my body.  Extreme cellulitis in the left leg seemed to be the culprit and antibiotics were being injected.  I was at the mercy of another five teams of medical people from surgical, medical, vascular, infectious disease and podiatry trying to fix what was broken.

Psalm 139:13-16 says, “ For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”  God’s presence was still there even in this hospital as I spent Resurrection Day 

On a hospital bed.  I recall the day when I thought it was Easter, but I was a day early.  I asked a nurse taking blood, “Are you a Christian?”  I was surprised when she said, “NO.  I don’t know what I am.”  I kept repeating the phrase, “He is risen.”  No one was responding with “He is risen indeed.”   For a while I thought I was in a pagan world until finally one replied with a Christian response.  Finally, someone was a believer.  God was still there.  He was there long before that day and even before the Saturday of the chills.  He was there when I was formed.  God was there at my birth and God has been there in every aspect of my life.  Psalm 139 dives into the riches of life and how it is formed in the beginning stages.  When we realize that God was present even when we were conceived, it should give us a glimmer of hope in a world that is falling into oblivion.  We probably have all experienced those days in the hospital when things were crumbling around us and perhaps we have wondered if God was there with us.  We can praise God today for His presence in all of our lives even from the days of conception.