Today has started a bit earlier than most. I’m sitting in a hospital waiting room while my mother undergoes hip-replacement surgery. And while her attitude is good and her prospects are excellent, I know that she doesn’t really want to be here. And who can blame her? There are several weeks (if not months) of sometimes-challenging recovery ahead. And so – while I look forward to her improved health and mobility – there’s also a sense in which I don’t want to be here, either.

But providentially, the readings from today’s Daily Office invite me to see a day like this in a different light. The Psalms call me to praise: “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your Name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:1). “Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights above” (Psalm 148:1). In the Old Testament lesson, God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind and asks: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (Job 38:4) And in the New Testament lesson, I’m reminded that God has spoken to us through His Son, and that “the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3).

In the end, you see, my mother’s life (along with my life and all our lives) are part of the larger, grander story of God and His glory. All creation has been, is, and will always be His. And at the center of it all, the radiance of His Son stands as a grace-filled reminder that the arc of the story leads us into wholeness.

I’m grateful for all the prayers that I know are being offered on my mother’s behalf today. But I’m even more grateful for the God who holds her today. May His name be praised, and may we wait in faith as He works His purposes out.