March 28, 2014

Keeping Together

(Devotion From Daily Guideposts by Melody Bonnette Swang)

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17

We’d rushed my son Christopher to the emergency room with a serious back injury. They took him in quickly for X-rays. I was directed to a crowded area where other families anxiously sat, waiting for news from the doctors. There was not an empty seat in the room.

An elderly lady with the word Volunteer embroidered on her white lab coat motioned me over. “Honey, there’s a place in the back that I can offer you to sit if you like.”

“Yes, thanks,” I said. I followed her to a tiny room and sat down in a chair. I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes.

I reached for the tiny silver cross hanging on a thin chain around my neck. “Please take care of Christopher,” I prayed, “and, Lord, could You take care of me too? Because right now I feel like I’m falling apart.”

Just then the volunteer came back into the room. “Doing okay?” she asked.

“Better now,” I said, still touching my cross. I looked down at it. “This is what is holding me together right now.”

She smiled and sat down next to me. “Have you ever heard of laminin?” she asked. I shook my head.

“My husband is a retired doctor,” she explained, “and it’s something he still marvels at. Laminin is a molecule that helps our cells stick together. Without these molecules, we would literally fall apart.”

She pointed at my cross and continued: “Interesting, isn’t it? When looked at under a microscope, the laminin molecule is shaped just like a cross.”

Lord, Your immense and elaborate design holds me together physically and spiritually.

This is so meaningful to me, I needed to share it.

Karen Bromley