“On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.’” Matthew 9:12
So without going too much into detail, I had surgery last summer. Things went well during the surgery itself and I recovered, for the most part, according to the doctor’s expectations, with one exception. I had some wounds that were healing extremely slowly. I followed the doctor’s instructions, I used the special “wound cream,” I did not over-extended myself during the recovery time. And yet, these wounds remained.
I was so fed up with the ordeal that I wanted to scream. I didn’t want to deal with them any longer. And the thing was, they were not overly troublesome, in that they didn’t cause a great deal of pain or discomfort. I would feel them to some extent throughout the day, but the main time I was bothered was in the mornings and evenings when I applied the medicine and changed the dressings. I knew that these steps were for a reason and if I didn’t do what I needed to, things could get much worse. If I didn’t change the dressings, if I didn’t expose those wounds to the light of day every once in a while, if I didn’t put medicine on them – they would never heal. And bit by bit, as days turned into weeks turned into months, those wounds did finally heal.
In much the same way, our hearts are wounded. Some wounds only manifest themselves in certain instances, and are more of a bother than a major ordeal. And some wounds are so deep it feels as though our heart could be split in two pieces. Soume wounds have taken huge slices from our hearts, while other hearts are cut into shreds by a bunch of smaller wounds. Some of us are nursing wounds from many years ago. Some of us have fresh wounds that are so raw and painful that they seem they could never possibly heal.
“Our Lord God is the great Healer, the Great Physician.” This is a phrase I have heard so many times in my life, and yet never saw the application for our hearts as clearly as I did through my physical wounds. He wants us to come to Him – He is the only one who can make our hearts whole again. And it is a process; often there are steps we need to make to “follow the doctor’s orders” – first of all letting Him in to begin the healing.
And when it’s all said and done, will we still have scars? Absolutely! I see my scars all the time, but they no longer bring the pain that they once did – they are simply physical reminders of my former wounds. It is the scars that are daily reminders of our dependence on Him, and they allow us to continually point the glory back to Him.
Manna and Coffee 