I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

Psalm 139:14

No really, I was shocked!  My fingers had been numb for months and months.  Numbness is just one symptom of carpal tunnel.  Getting ready for work in the morning was the worst.  Routine things were difficult and sometimes impossible. I couldn’t feel my hair when I washed it, or feel my face to apply makeup.  I couldn’t button my pants or tie a shoe.  I couldn’t pick up a book and turn the pages or put ice in my tea. All very inconvenient.

But the other day, I was trying to plug in a microwave with numb fingers.  The outlet was behind some things and I couldn’t see it well and my fingers failed to cooperate.  At one point, I felt a weird sensation near my wrist and I realized that I was being shocked.  I didn’t feel the shock until it had traveled up the numb zone to the feeling zone of my arm.  I’ve never had that happen before.  I was bothered by that. I had prayed for healing and had others pray for me but not manifestation of healing had come. I wasn’t so much bothered by that.

What bothered me was that I realized that in 50 plus years of having hands that functioned correctly, I never once thanked God for them.  Not once.  I took them for granted.  I started mentally listing a number of things I took for granted and I’d like to thank Him now.

Thank You Father for all the times my hands worked perfectly enough for me to:

Change a diaper

Wipe away a tear

Braid my daughters’ hair

Bridle a horse

Milk a goat

Bathe a dog

Play my guitar

Play my piano

Take photographs and develop and print them

Cook dinner

Wash dishes

Open a jar

Brush my teeth

Feel my husband’s skin

Use a pen to write

Hold a telephone

Scratch an itch

Tend a garden

Can the harvest

Ski

Sail

Sew my daughters’ clothes

Make quilt as gifts

Crochet

Needlepoint

Have thumb wars with my son

The list goes on and on.

It’s pretty much endless isn’t it Father?  All the things my hands have done in the past 50 + years.  Forgive me for taking those things for granted, for not even once thanking You.  I am thanking You now.  What a marvelous gift hands are and what a marvelous God You are.  Thank you for the endless list of things I have been able to feel and make and touch throughout my life.  Thank You for the things I have yet to touch and feel and make.  Please help me to never take these things for granted again, in Jesus’s name, amen.

P.S. Not long after this, I was healed totally of carpal tunnel!!!! Praise God!

pic credit: The Indian Express