One Strong Hip

Well, I reached that age, by my last summer’s physical, when the doctor automatically starts ordering certain tests and procedures. Have we done a colonoscopy yet? I know you are up to date on your mammograms. What about a bone density test?

 I told her I hadn’t had a bone density test and asked what that involved. She reassured me that it was a very simple, painless, non-invasive test that only lasted a few minutes. 

“You just lie down on this table-like area and this bar just scans over your body. It doesn’t touch you or anything, and all you have to do is just lie there and be still.” 

Okay, I thought. I can do that! 

“The test will give us an idea how you are doing on the bone density scale. 


"It measures how your bones compare in density to the average adult your age and screen for osteoporosis, or osteopenia, which is a lower than normal bone density which might be a precursor to osteoporosis,” she said.

Then my mind began to wander as she launched into an explanation about calcium and bone density and how the loss of bone density leads to osteoporosis and the possibility of bone fractures…. Yada, yada, yada…. 

Several minutes later, bone density test referral in hand, I thanked her and headed out the door. 

The following week I had the procedure done (and it was indeed as simple as she had promised), and two weeks later, I found myself sitting in her exam room waiting for the verdict. 


Dr. Hopper came in with her usual chipper greeting, opened my file and flipped through the pages to find the report she sought. 


Flip…flip…flip…. “Okay! Here we go. Hmmm….Good, no sign of osteoporosis. Looks like you have good strong bones….” 

Flip…. 

“Well, this is strange….” She scratches her chin. “I’ve never see this before.” 

(I’ve spent my whole life trying to fit in, so words like that always make my skin crawl!) 

“It says here that your left hip bone is much denser than your right. That’s really unusual…. 

"I’ve never seen that before. If it shows up denser, that means that the bone is stronger,” she explained (which, of course, I already knew.) 

“How odd,” she mused, “that you would have one hip stronger than the other.” 

I remembered watching a tv show on the history channel years ago about some scientists who were examining the skeleton of one of the famed de’Medici men of the 15th century. 

By careful inspection of the skeleton, they could tell what diseases he had had, that he had been right handed, and that he was well acquainted with physical labor (which was extremely unusual for a wealthy man of that era.) 

The way they could tell he was right handed, and that he had done hard, physical labor was that his right scapula (shoulder blade) was not just larger than his left, but also much denser from being used so much more vigorously. 

So Dr. Hopper’s announcement really did not sound so unusual to me.

I know why I have that one extra strong hip! 

That is the left hip that carried that heavy stack of text books in high school from Mr. Mulder's biology class to Mr. Broad-beck's history class and then back down to the lockers in the hallway down by the library. 

That left hip is the one that carried fifteen heavy Western saddles out of the tack room to the hitching post to saddle fifteen horses for horsemanship class and for trail rides down at the stables in high school every day to pay for my tuition.

It was that left hip that always had one baby or another on it between the time Nick was born in 1983 and Erin got too heavy to carry sometime around 1992. 

It was that left hip that always got to help prop open heavy doors while the kids filed through when my children were just wee ones, and then again when I was the teacher holding the door for my students after recess.

It was that left hip that carried a very heavy milk crate full of teacher’s manuals home every night for the first half of first year I went to work teaching full-time at White Memorial Adventist School.

That was the year when Eddie walked out on me and left me to raise three little ones on my own. I had no idea what I was doing in the classroom and was so afraid I’d screw up that I took all the teacher’s manuals home (for both 3rd and 4th grade) each night. 

Long after my little ones were in bed, I’d pour over the lessons to be sure I had them perfect for the next day. Then I would haul the heavy crate full of books back the next morning – on that same left hip. 

That left hip has done a lot of hard jobs in a lot of different phases of my life – some difficult and painful, and others joyous. And each one has made it stronger. 

And so it is with many facets of our life. 

The more they are exercised, the stronger they become, just like that one strong hip. 

It is that way with musicians.

Everybody knows that the more time a beginning violinist spends practicing at his violin, the stronger his violin performance becomes. 

The more a weight-lifter works his biceps muscles, the bigger and stronger and more impressive they get. 

(And I think both the men and the women alike would have to agree that the strong bicep is mighty nice!)

And so it is with personal relationships. The more time you spend on a relationship, the stronger it becomes, whether that is a relationship with your child, or your spouse, or your co-worker. 

In the same way, the more time you spend with God, whether in study, or in prayer, the stronger your relationship with him will become, just like that one strong hip...

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
                                                               1 Peter 5:10



    Liz Rosas - 14 Feb 2013