When I was in high school, I was skateboarding with my brother down a hill by our house. The skateboard hit a deep crack in the sidewalk and I fell off and injured my wrist. It hurt a lot when I moved it. I was immediately concerned about it because I was on the gymnastics team at school and uneven bars was my favorite event. With a hurt wrist it wouldn’t be possible to practice or compete with my team, so I began to pray immediately.
I remember the prayer being very simple. “There is not a spot where God is not.” I knew I could never fall out of God’s ever-present loving care; that nothing could stop me from demonstrating strength, flexibility, balance, control, and safety because these are qualities of God, the divine Being, that we all reflect because we are made in the image and likeness of God (See Gen 1:26&27).
My wrist was tender for a couple of days, but I was able to practice what I really needed to without pain. By the time of that week’s gymnastics competition my wrist was fully healed and I was so happy to be able to move freely and without fear as I did my full routines on all of the apparatus including uneven bars.