Wrestling with God

Laser Treatment #4 yesterday on Honeybun's hip, and she seemed to be finally on the path to recovery, but this morning, is not bearing weight on the leg again. If the treatments were free I would be slightly less inclined to just drop my face in my coffee with no attempt to leave breathing orifices clear. If they knew exactly what was causing her lameness, I would be happier to stay the course, but at this point, I think the vet is just guessing. He knows it is not hip dysplasia, and it is not her knee, and it is something in the right hip that doesn't show up on xray...but what?

Maybe she recently wrestled with God. Jacob of the Bible did, and wouldn't let God go until God blessed Him. And God did grant the blessing, but left Jacob with a wrenched hip that was presumably sore for the rest of his life. No one wrestles with God and emerges untouched by the experience.

I used to read that story in the Bible and think, "Why would anyone dare wrestle with God? What was he thinking??"

But in reality, I wrestle with God too-
Every time I challenge His commands, and insist I know better.
Every time I look at His consequences and insist they are too harsh.
Every time I question His control of things that sure don't seem to be going the way I would hope.

The wonderful miracle is that we all know God could have hurt a lot more than Jacob's hip. He could have squashed him like a slug, but instead, extended a blessing. Maybe God doesn't mind that we wrestle with Him. Maybe for some of us, it is in the struggle that we learn to walk properly with God. It is surely better than ignoring Him.

It is a wonder *my* hip isn't hurting.


Genesis 32: 24-30
24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.


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