Daily Thought for Tuesday 18th March 2025
“He remembered his sacred promise to Abraham his servant”
Psalm 105:42 (NRSV)
Always
Frances Cunningham
I can’t think of a better example of someone who lived by faith than Lex. By the time I was old enough to understand what his illness entailed, he was housebound. The disease, ravaging his body, every movement an effort and racked with pain, but his life was anything but over. Everyone found him a joy to visit and he was, as he regaled us with his myriad stories. Confined to his sofa, he had an upbeat, positive attitude and a huge smile for all. Plus, he was thankful for little things: the way his fish darted this way and that in his aquarium. Or the simple kindness of others: “I got homemade tablet the other day”.
A joiner to trade, ruler in the leg pocket of his overalls, pencil behind his ear, the smell of sawdust was the only “aftershave “ he needed.
Lex became totally bedridden, his body twisted and gnarled by the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. I could only imagine the pain he endured but I never heard him complain. If he was hurting, he kept it to himself. He didn’t talk about his aches and pains. Instead he asked about other folks “who are worse than me.”
What I especially remember was that he was a talented cabinetmaker. He loved nothing better than crafting intricate pieces as gifts for his family and many friends. Woodworking was his life, a life for which he was eternally thankful, even though it was now a thing of the past.
Israel struggled to make sense of the Exile in which they had lost everything, most notably the land that had been promised to them. That loss of course, caused a great crisis of faith. Where is God in all this? How could this happen?
But God remembered his holy promise … and he always does. That’s the message to people who wonder where God is in their times of trouble or of terrible loss.
So remember him, praise him and trust him, even when it seems that all is lost.
Shall we pray?:
Thank you God for answering our questions with your presence. Help us to seek you and to thank you in the easy times and the hard. Always. Amen.
Frances Cunningham is lay pastor in the charge of Gladsmuir linked with Longniddry.