Mondays–V5E5–Thank God for Wrinkles

When I first looked at this photograph and saw the mounds of wrinkles on my neck, I cringed. Oh my, how old I look. I didn’t want to see what time had done to my face and my neck and the saggy baggy skin on my arms. I always think about the children’s book I used to read to my kids called “The Saggy Baggy Elephant” who is teased because of his “big ears, long nose, and wrinkled skin, the “saggy baggy.” skin.

Then I looked at those wrinkles through another set of eyes and realized those wrinkles were a blessing because most importantly, I was alive to see them. I had eyesight good enough to see them. Those wrinkles are on a neck that holds my head high and has supported me all these years and that neck holds the voice box that allows me to speak and sing. Those wrinkles are on my arms that can still lift forty pounds (I didn’t say I did it gracefully). The wrinkles and age spots on my hands that used to be smooth and unblemished and my nails long and strong are often cracked and brittle. But those hands are still steady allowing me to do all the things I enjoy like sewing, crafting, painting and building.

This is what I was thinking about as I lay on the hospital gurney for the umpteenth time since I began this Atrial Fibrillation/Atrial Flutter journey over the last five years. My heart was racing as I lay there, 154 beats per minute (normal heart rate is 60-100 and average is 80 beats per minute) but I was thankful that my heart was still capable of being strong (even if it was misfiring) and thankful that a quick procedure would most likely get me back into rhythm (again).

As the anesthesiologist injected the lidocaine and the propofol, just as I was beginning to feel the tingling that I knew would take me under, I asked for the blessing that I grew up with:

The Lord bless me and keep me,
The Lord make his face shine upon me and be gracious until me,
The Lord lift up his countenance upon me and give me peace.
Numbers 6:24-26

He did.