Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

SNAKEBITE How the body digests food was first discovered on Michigan's Mackinac Island. A worker for the American Fur Company was accidentally shot in the stomach while shopping at an island store in 1822. Fort Mackinac's Dr. William Beaumont managed to save the young man's life, but the wound would not heal. As a result, the doctor was able to observe and later experiment with the previously unknown process of digestion. Those experiments greatly advanced medical knowledge. Even unpleasant things have their rewards. Paul, shipwrecked on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean, was gathering sticks for a fire. Suddenly, a snake bit him and, by all human understanding, Paul should have died. Yet God refused to let the snake harm the apostle; and because of that event, the islanders found the Lord. God brought something beautiful out of Paul's pain. An old poem says: Two men looked between the bars; One saw the mud, the other the stars. This is especially meaningful for believers. No matter what happens to us, we need only relax and let God glorify Himself through it. We need not panic. God is still on the throne. Let us look today at the stars and leave the mud for those without faith.