The Greater Joke

Two weeks ago I had a surgery from which I am still recovering. I grossly underestimated the word "surgery" and have had a humbling realization as to what the doctor meant by "three week recovery." Thankfully, Philip was not surprised, and he (with the older kids) kept the family rolling as usual.

I want to share with you the excerpt from Every Moment Holy that got me through those first days because all of us, at one time or another, will resonate with these words:

May the inescapable decline

of our bodies here not be wasted.

May it do its tutoring work, inclining

our hearts and souls ever more vigorously

toward your coming kingdom, O God.

Give us also a sense of humor

to wink at our weaknesses now,

knowing that they are but the evidences

of a perishable body

that will at your beckoning

rise again imperishable, and that the

greater joke is the one played upon death.