It was a bright afternoon, in the midst of a routine day. Moishe came back from the Talmud Torah as he did every day, and went down to the courtyard of the building to play. Then, in the midst of a fun game run, his leg hit something; he stumbled and fell to the ground, moaning in pain... Within a few seconds, it became clear that it just a dry blow. The boy was screaming and screaming; his leg was bent and blue. An ambulance was called, he was rushed to the emergency room, and that night he was hospitalized in the orthopedic ward, with the doctors very concerned about the condition of his leg...
'The bone has been shattered, completely!' – the doctor told his parents the next morning, 'In fact, we are very worried, and we are seriously considering our steps. We will conduct a special consultation with the senior professors, and we will make a decision on what should be done' – the doctor threw a rock at the hearts of the parents who are anxious about their son's fate.
It turns out that it was a terrible fall, with long-term consequences... In the afternoon, a special consultation was held, and then the parents were called to the doctor's room. 'We don't have much to do' – they said in despair, 'but to recommend physiotherapy treatments for a long, very long period. At the moment, we don't see a chance to heal the fractures in the leg; the situation is not simple... It seems that there is no choice but to state that for three years the child will not be able to walk, and throughout the entire period he will undergo arduous physiotherapy treatments, and maybe, and maybe, and maybe, - in three years he will be able to walk a little...'
The harsh news shocked the parents. Until yesterday, the child was healthy and happy, playing around and walking around. And now, in one moment of insufficient attention, he reached a point where he would not be able to walk for three years, and would have to undergo difficult and agonizing treatments, until his leg would return to strength. And who knows if that will happen, and in three years he will indeed start walking, and who knows in what form... Then, when the parents returned home, they decided to act in a different direction than expected. They gathered the children in the living room, and talked to them about how great the "natural" and "simple" miracle of walking on two healthy legs has been proven, and how worthy it is to observe the other "natural" miracles that occur every day, to draw attention to them and to be thankful for them.
And we will say thank you to him. Here, I am writing the first note – a kindness that I have been blessed with today, and each of you can also write and give thanks...' From that day on, the family home became a home of thanksgiving. The children sought to see the good, to find an original idea of what to be thankful for today. Every single day they filled out notes, big and small, white and yellow, in round handwriting and square handwriting, big favors and small favors, graces and miracles of all kinds... And every day, the family members took time to give thanks. Take the bundle of notes, look at them for a few seconds, and thank God for every detail of them. It didn't take a lot of time, just a lot of heart, thought, excitement, and a song of thanksgiving that rises from the bottom of the heart, from the mouths of both the big and the small, every single day...
In the meantime, the boy with the broken leg returned home. He began physiotherapy treatments, and from the very beginning it seemed that he was progressing at a faster pace than expected. The family members continued to thank him for this, for his healthy legs, for the broken legs, for the physiotherapy, for the fall, for the rapid progress - they thanked him for everything ... And in less than a year, the miracle occurred. The child was completely back to himself; he began to walk like a human being. He doesn't need physiotherapy, he doesn't need help, certainly not treatments of any kind. He just walks, walks on both legs, walks and dances in thanksgiving, walks and mouths praising and thanksgiving...
And this story, which we heard from the influential Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Malach shlit"a, as we heard from the boy's father, teaches us how great the power of gratitude is to bring about a real revolution. Let us see before our eyes the child walking on both feet against all odds, how he has overcome all prophecies. Let us see how great is the power of thanksgiving to open a special opening of grace and mercy in heaven, to bring salvation with surprising speed. "And for everything, G-d, we thank You and bless You." When everything goes smoothly and when we experience falls, literally. We don't need reminders about what and how much we should be thankful for; we can look around us and see with our own eyes the goodness and kindness of God that He has bestowed upon us. Let us thank Him from the bottom of our hearts!
