In an attempt to eat healthier, I’ve been cooking more.  Now I am not good, per say.  But I am trying.  My knife skills are seriously lacking though.  For instance, I was cutting up a chicken breast that I had baked to have a chicken salad for lunch and sliced my thumb with the knife.  Not going to lie, blood was everywhere.  (Picture Dan Aykroyd cooking as Julia Child from Saturday Night Live, complete with the high-pitched shrieks. Special thanks to Joan coming up with this accurate image when I complained about my thumb at choir practice!)  Ran upstairs to get band-aids, and Fritz (my foxhound) took this as an opportunity to eat the unattended bloody chicken.  I’m bleeding everywhere.  Fritz is merrily eating the chicken.  It wasn’t a great scene.  Well for me anyway, he was living the dream.

As any mature adult would do, I called my mother to complain.  With two band-aids, layers of trusty athletic tape, and tissues over all of that . . . the bleeding just wouldn’t stop!  And she gave me advice on wound treatment as only mothers can.  Now, this may sound strange, but I’ve appreciated watching my thumb heal since the mishap.  After a wound, the blood starts to clot.  Scabs form to protect the tissues underneath from germs.  Tissue growth and rebuilding happens.  New skin forms over the tissue.  The edges pull inward and the wound gets smaller.  A scar often forms and fades.  The healing process is miraculous (and my thumb is feeling and looking much better!)

Here’s the thing—some wounds heal easily.  Some scars fade in time.
Other wounds cut deep.  The scars remain as a painful reminder.
Sometimes our wounds are physical.  Other times our wounds are emotional or spiritual.

Remember that Jesus was known far and wide as a healer.
Jesus cared about wholeness, helping people on the margins be restored to the community.  Still does!
We can do our best to bind up the broken-hearted and the wounded in body, mind, and spirit, knowing our loving God has compassion for us all.
And remember that we never really know the wounds others may have, so let’s just be kind.

 (This Week’s Thoughts 6.7.18)