It was the last place I expected to get a bit of preaching.

“God is a big God.”

My rheumatologist paused from the paperwork he had been filling out and looked at me as he uttered that truth. I wholeheartedly agreed with him and continued to discuss the point at hand. The point is this: my arthritis is in a remission of sorts.

I’m not really sure what qualifies as remission, so I feel uncomfortable giving a blanket statement from a medical standpoint. But it’s true that my joints are not inflamed right now, and they haven’t been for months and months. I discontinued injections, my treatment for RA, just before Thanksgiving last year. At the time I stopped the medication in order to treat an infection (you can’t take one drug for suppressing your immune system and another for encouraging it to work—they cancel each other out) and lo and behold, I didn’t need to go back on the RA meds. For eight months now I’ve been in what appears to be remission.

If my joints begin to swell tomorrow morning I will order my prescription and be grateful for the respite. I am open-handedly thanking God for this break from pain and the need to take a powerful drug.

Open hands. Receiving our big God’s gifts and understanding that all the good and bad life offers is not mine to choose. I want to ride the waves of life by faith, knowing that the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous, trusting that God’s big plan for this world is a good one, and enjoying—with open hands—the blessings that he gives me, even if it means that tomorrow this particular blessing is gone.

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness.