Lately I’ve been thinking about how truly rich I am. Of course I’m not talking about material possessions – not only do I not have all that much, but I just don’t value “things” to a very high degree. “Things” fall away, you see. You get them, you use them, and then you dispose of them. Either that or they dispose of you. No, I really don’t care much about “things”.
I do, however, care an awful lot about people. And, thanks be to God I have an awful lot of people who care about me.
The week before last, Fenelon Clan hit a significant bump in the road; we nearly lost one of our sons to a critical illness. As soon as word got out, the phone and email messages began pouring in from as far away as Chile and Germany. Folks wanted to know what they could do to help our family and they wanted to assure us of their love and prayers. They did an awesome job, because we truly felt loved and carried by God’s grace. Additionally, our son recovered in record time – certainly the result of their ardent petitions to the heavenly Father for his recovery!
Now that life is beginning to return to its usual abnormal-normal, I’ve had some time to contemplate the happenings of the last couple of weeks.
While it may have seemed on the surface that we were receiving some pretty harsh treatment from our heavenly Father, when we looked closer we could see his wisdom in all that was unfolding. Father Joseph Kentenich, founder of the International Schoenstatt Movement, calls that the “iron glove” of the Father. Sometimes things happen and we feel as though we’re being handled with an iron glove – something hard, cold, uncaring, painful… But, it is just a glove, albeit made of iron, and inside is a warm, gentle, loving, comforting hand. It’s the hand of God the Father, who knows what is best for us.
Behind the iron glove of our son’s illness, I could see numerous warm and gentle hands reaching out to us, many of which came in the form of loved ones from near and far and filled with love. That’s a wealth beyond measure.
