Grateful Gifts

My son was moved out of ICU today!
One week ago he had a bad accident which required a 5 hour surgery by two teams of surgeons. He faces a long recovery which will have it's challenges, to be sure, but he will recover.

Two days ago he was waking from a medication induced 5 day sleep, yesterday morning he tried to write and it looked like chicken scratch, today he was writing clearly, and just now he said goodnight and love you to his son over the phone, wired jaw and all.

 I think of what might have been.

I can only think that he must have a purpose to fulfill, hence the second chance.
I think back to his grandfather, my dad, burned so bad in World War II that he spent a year in the hospital. He not only survived, he went on to raise 6 children.  Surely we children owe something to God or the universe for the gift of our father's survival, because except for that we would not have been born.

But haven't we all been given that gift?  Even if we have not come close to death, we were given the gift of life when we were born.  What do we do with that gift?

Each of us also has talents, which are gifts, freely given to us.  Sure, hard work has in many cases been necessary to develop those talents, but the natural ability was given to us.

Maybe we have a wonderful voice, maybe a quick analytical mind, maybe a skillful hand, maybe the ability to see something beautiful in a block of stone and to bring it to life. Maybe we can lead people, or listen, or care for and heal.
I believe that we have an obligation to take the gifts we have been given and not hoard them for our own gain, but freely give them to others.  Our purpose may not be to surgically stitch together the facial bones of a young man.  Our purpose may be to tenderly clean his face of dried blood so that he and his family feels better.
In doing these things,both the surgeon and the emergency room tech gave back the gifts that they had been given.
Both actions were marvelous examples of the best of human endeavors, caring for each other with the gifts we have received.  The surgeon and the tech were equally skilled at their task, and each task was equally important.

I am feeling very grateful tonight, for my family, for the health care workers caring for my son, for his continued improvement, and for all the gifts I have been given.