Leaning...On The Everlasting Arms!

On our Blog three years ago around this time we wrote about the Old Covered Bridge at Wallace, and how that I had walked again down the hill east out of town as I had many times as a kid on an outing with our dog Fanny. It was refreshing to hike down and back then , but in more recent years my spinal stenosis and deteriorating right hip made it painful and finally impossible to do. I was giving in to the discomfort and to cope with the problem I was leaning more and more to the right and using a cane constantly. In nautical language I was "listing to the starboard"! In an earlier Blog I used the German word "hinken" to describe the limping on my right side. Well, in the May issue of that fine local publication "Jackson Journal" there was a report of the tornado that hit the Wallace area on April 19 and left the Old Covered Bridge leaning precariously to the south, almost ready to collapse into Mill Creek! The "before" and "after" pictures with news articles tell how that County Highway workers and local citizens, using huge wreckers and cables were able to pull the Bridge back upright and shore it up inside with new cross-bracing. Since it is on the National Historical Register the community hopes that the cost of saving and repairing the Bridge will be covered by Federal funds and private donations. Well, I've been thinking ... I'm so glad this edifice was spared and soon I hope to take a sentimental walk down there again...not leaning painfully on a cane! Since the right hip replacement surgery in March, and after home therapy care, I'm now walking without a cane and more upright all the time...although I keep the cane close for emergencies (and for sympathy)! In a way I feel like the Wallace Bridge, a short time ago leaning and often ready to collapse, but now with outside help pretty straightened and stronger than ever, it seems. I didn't need huge machinery and cables, only good medical care and, above all, the gracious provisions of the One Who assures us: "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms..." (Deuteronomy 33:27). So, the hymn-writer got it right: "O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, Leaning on the Everlasting arms; O how bright the path grows from day to day, Leaning on the Everlasting arms...!" We hope every reader has found, or will find this promise to be a blessing, too!