What’s left behind?

Our boys were out playing paintball with a friend earlier this week.  Our younger son was running to join the fray when he grabbed a tree to help propel himself around a corner.

“T” our older son heard echoing through the woods.  He thought it was odd as his brother never called “T”.  He didn’t hear the cries for help over the ‘splat’ ‘splat’ of the firefight.

When his brother found him, he was pale and shaky and cupping his hand protectively.  Big brother, a lifeguard, looked down in horror to see part of the tree protruding from little brother’s hand.  He took him by the scruff of the neck and the arm and hurried him home.  I was in the kitchen when I heard, “Mum, NOW!”  Hmmmm, not a normal thing – he never speaks to me like that.

What I saw was a hand, my child’s hand, with a branch the size of my little finger embedded in the palm.  I couldn’t tell at the time but worse than the 2 inches sticking out was the 1/4 inch stuck in.

Off we went to the hospital to have the stick removed – I couldn’t get it out.  Our son was still cradling his wound and was muttering bits of agony over the pain but not a tear did he shed.

A few hours and some pain killers later, he joined us at the supper table with the company we had at the house before we even left for the hospital.

It was interesting as our son expressed his excruciating pain, our guest noted that the word excruciating originated in Latin as a way to express the agony of the pain on the cross.  “It’s from Latin excruciare, from cruciare, to crucify. (Collins) So it does literally mean “a pain like the pain of crucifixion”.”

Although our son’s stick  pierced hand came nowhere near the nail pierced hands of our Saviour it was a vivid picture of just an inkling of what our Lord must have endured.

A couple of days after the stick had been removed, infection set in.  A piece of the stick had been left behind.  Even though it was tiny (we needed xray to find it) it was destroying the hand.  The plastic surgeon expressed grave concern over the damage scar tissue could do to the tendons and nerves in the hand.

Again, my mind was taken to the cross.  Jesus died so all sin could be taken from us.  When we choose to let even a little bit remain in our lives, the scar tissue can lead to permanent damage.

Psalm 51:2
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

Jesus came and endured the excruciating pain on the cross that we might be set free from the power of sin.  If we accept His sacrifice, our lives can be made new.  Don’t let the bit of branch (sin) infect you.  Purge it from your life so that you may be made clean in Him!

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.