“If you have your health, you have everything.” Huh?

Well, friends, I’m “supposed” to be in Germany right now. ☹️ Yup, my wife and I had bought our airline tickets back in April for a July 15-25 vacation visiting with our twelve-year-old grandson in Martinshöhe in southwest Germany. But “life intervened” as it often does.

Many of you know my wife fractured her femur bone last November when she fell in the bathroom tub. She’s been recovering very well from that injury. The bone has knitted together nicely and she only has a slight limp at this point. But my wife also has a scoliosis and cranial asymmetry condition that she’s been dealing with all of her life. Very similar to the circumstances when she broke the same femur bone thirty-five years ago, the leg injury exacerbated the chronic spinal/cranial discomfort and pain. We’re grateful her new doctor is very familiar with her specific spinal/cranial condition (most aren’t), but the physical therapy he prescribed is also a bit unsettling as expected. As the vacation date loomed closer and closer, my wife vascillated daily as to whether she felt well enough to travel, and on July 13 we contacted the airline and our relatives in Germany and regrettably told them we wouldn’t be coming.

There’s a very popular saying out there that goes something along the lines of, “If you have your health, you have everything.” Say what? How true is that? MANY people are dealing with serious health problems, and if you’re not, just wait. At some point, EVERY person is going to have a major health problem/s. Our bodies are finite, which most people try not to think about. Because of sin, it’s a fallen world and a few of the consequences are the inevitable deterioration of our bodies and finally, death. But Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin by His death on the cross and He rose from the grave, defeating sin and death, and extends the free gift of salvation and eternal life to all those who repent of sin and accept Him as their Savior by faith alone. That’s VERY good news, but the majority of people want nothing to do with Jesus Christ. If you enjoy excellent health right now, that’s a good thing, but it’s only temporary. Accept Christ. The old adage should read, “If you have Jesus Christ, you have everything.”

“Sickness teaches us that we must look elsewhere for the purpose of life, than in ourselves; and that we live not just to be happy upon earth, but to glorify God. And this we can do in sickness as well as in health, often better. Let us, then, learn from all of the sicknesses and sufferings of life, and from all that the Word of God teaches us, that our time belongs to God, and our only concern must be to use it for His glory.” – Adolphe Monad, French evangelical pastor, 1802-1856

Postscript: The last time we visited our German grandson was in April 2016, which included a rather humorous episode (see here). His father (our son) and mother divorced last year, but they weren’t together all that much following the wedding. After a couple of years of being stationed at Ramstein AFB in Germany where he met our grandson’s mother, our son was reassigned to several bases in the U.S. (as well as voluntary stints in Afghanistan and Iraq), but our daughter-in-law opted to remain behind in Germany and live with her parents in order to complete her college education, which took a very long time because she could only attend school part-time. Not the best circumstances for a marriage.