My owner recently had a hospital appointment. It was just a routine follow-up after he had some surgery to remove his prostate back in June. Some patients have waterwork problems after this procedure, but my owner has been very fortunate. The specialist nurse that he saw was a very splendid human called ‘Cath.’ (She had a big badge saying so on her uniform!)
Now, Cath is a very likeable nurse, but my owner quickly came to realise that she wouldn’t suffer fools. He instantly knew that he had to be on his best behaviour. So he followed Cath into a spacious consulting room in the Urology Department. And after sitting down, he glanced across to the far wall and saw a huge display cabinet which stretched from floor to ceiling. And on the other side of the glass doors, there must have been at least 30 different types of catheter on display. There were glossy ones and dull ones; clear ones and coloured ones; short ones and long ones; narrow ones and some worryingly wide ones. You name it, Cath had got it there, all proudly on display!
For a fleeting moment, my owner was tempted to ask Nurse Cath whether her surname was “Eter,” but then he thought better of it. Instead, after having taken a second glance at the display cabinet, he felt it might be safer for him to quietly recite Psalm 23 to himself:
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
(Psalm 23: 4a).
Fortunately for him, all of the items remained firmly in the cabinet, and he emerged from the appointment completely unscathed. And this little episode made my owner think about how we always seem to turn to God in our moments of weakness and fragility. We all seem to pray that little bit harder when things are stacking up against us (including walls of catheters). God always wants to be there for us in our time of need. He can’t always change what’s going on, but He can put it all into a bigger context so that we can find peace in the midst of the storm.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
