I’ve spent the last week with a split on my finger. I have treated it with antibiotic cream. I have used hand lotion. I have unsuccessfully tried to avoid water. This split begins to close and then, BAM!, I smack it on something or something pokes it. I put my hand in my pocket and it catches on the fabric. I wash my hands and it grows soft and opens again. I have done all I know to do except cover it with a bandage which will likely fall off the first time I put my hands in water!
I began to ask the Lord if there was any spiritual significance relating to my hand’s inability to heal. Immediately I had a picture in my mind of families sitting around the Thanksgiving table in anger and frustration. There were sad faces and tears and misunderstandings. There were people sitting alone because it’s less painful than the alternative… sitting with those who make you feel bad about yourself.
These people have splits in their souls… wounds that never heal because they bump into someone who opens the wound… often intentionally. These places of pain can exist for months… even years… and, although they are not healed, there is nothing in their surroundings to bump into… and then the holidays come. Someone gets too close to this unhealed, sensitive area and the pain level goes off the charts! Then instead of working together to provide the needed healing, the one with the wound chooses to walk away or is left to, once again, separate from the one who did the “bumping.”
Because the wound is left untreated, unhealed… unforgiven… the layers under the surface begin to fester and become infected. Now it is not just disturbing the surface that causes pain. Now the pain on the surface echoes through layer upon suppurating layer. The slightest touch causes responses in unknown places. Pain intensifies. Tempers flair. Tears descend. Silence reigns and with it… deeper wounds.
I wonder if any of you can relate to this analogy. If so, make this the year that you lance the wound and allow the healing to make YOU better. Because no one is suffering, outside of these family gatherings, but you. Sometimes you even bring it on yourself because the familiar is, well, familiar. It puts us at ease and in it, we find comfort… until the next stabbing reminder of the wound’s existence.
Try something different this year. Try forgiveness. It will create the healing that you’re wanting. It will set you free of all that has kept you in bondage. It will open doors to a new place of health and growth and freedom. Don’t wait another year. Give yourself the gift of renewed life. With God’s help, set yourself free…
Make this the Thanksgiving that you truly rejoice and give thanks for ALL that you have… including your family! God’s there for you!!!