Lord, I have been so blessed by others who served as instruments of Your love, light and grace. In fact, I have only been able to live the life You gave me and overcome polio’s disabilities because of them.

I met one such instrument at age 13. When curvature of my spine threatened to end my life, my mother took me to see Dr. Paul Harrington.
Dr. Harrington was a visionary orthopedic surgeon. He had developed the revolutionary “Harrington Rod”, a steel instrument, placed in the bow of the spine to keep it from bending further. To allow growth in height, the Rod could be extended in future years for a young growing patient like me.

When he saw me, Dr. Harrington said, “How are you, Muscles?” Even though he probably called every boy “Muscles” it made me feel stronger inside my weak body.

The following week a five-hour surgery took place. Dr. Harrington cut my back open from midline at the base of my neck to just above my tail bone. Three steel rods were placed along my spine, instruments put in place by a doctor who was Your instrument in giving me and thousands of others the opportunity to live, love and grow in service to You. That morning, after surgery, I was three inches taller.

Your living instrument, Dr. Harrington, enabled me to grow and to know You far more than the three inches I gained. God, every day I pray words of thanks for him and to You for that.

God, please help all of us to find the instruments in each of us. For in the use of them, like my Harrington Rods, we not only find what is possible in us but what is made possible in the lives of others because of Your Holy Spirit acting in us and through us. Amen

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Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full service firm in Houston, Dallas and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.