Tim Steele was a close friend of mine for many years. Tim was no different from my other friends, except for one thing… he had spent all of his life in a wheelchair due to Cerebral Palsy. As a child, Tim had been told that he would most likely die by the age of 20 due to the disease that had crippled him. He was determined to live to 40 just to prove the doctors wrong. That’s the kind of spirit he had, and he followed through with it.
At the age of 40, as the final days of his life were coming to an end, a small group of friends gathered around his bedside. We all knew that it was only a matter of days or weeks before he would “breathe his last breath.” He had held on to the belief that he would be able one day to get up out of his wheelchair. That belief was to soon be fully realized in Heaven.
As we surrounded his bed, someone asked him, “What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get to Heaven?” I suppose we all thought his response would be something like, “I’m going to RUN down the streets of gold on my new legs!” His quick reply to the question, though, caught us all by surprise when he said, “I’m going to find Jesus and bow down on my brand new knees and worship Him!” He continued, “All my life I’ve been in this wheelchair and haven’t been able to worship my Lord by kneeling before Him… that’s the first thing I want to do when I get to Heaven.”
Tim taught us all an important lesson that day. The greatest thing a person will ever do with the legs that God has given them is not to stand, walk, run or play… it’s to BOW BEFORE GOD ON BENDED KNEES. My brother, Tim, went on to Heaven several days later and I often think of the words of wisdom he passed on to us that day as we stood around his bedside. I know he is enjoying his brand new legs in Heaven… as He bows on his brand new knees before God’s Throne.
Psalm 95:6
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
