Reason #440

I love days like today. Days when you walk out of your house in the morning and it’s already pleasant. Days where the sun in shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Tomorrow is good Friday, and as I drove home for lunch, I thought about last Easter. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems as if Easter has snuck up this year. Weren’t we just celebrating Christmas? Fast or slow, I won’t complain because this is my favorite time of the year. Every morning when I get to work, I read a devotional from a little book I get each month. I have so much going on right now that I forget what day it is half of the time. I was glad to be reminded what the weekend holds in store because it’s definitely a time to celebrate!
 

I blogged about it a while back, but the worst physical injury I’ve undergone in my 25 years of life was slicing off a good chunk of my thumb and getting it stitched back on. It hurt, big time. Well, initially it didn’t hurt because it took a moment for my brain to register what had just happened. Once it clicked that I had severely cut myself, my thumb began to hurt. But what hurt the most was the numbing shot I received before I got the stitches. Oh. My. Word. I won’t go into deals, but it hurt a lot. However, having 20 stitches being sewn into my skin wouldn’t have felt good without it, so I had to endure a bit of pain in order to handle what was to come. I’d like to think, for a person of my size and stature, that I have a high pain tolerance. But, when it comes to stitches, I think even a lumberjack would beg for a numbing shot, too.

 

 

I can’t imagine knowing that was going to happen before it did. The element of surprise made it much more endurable. It was quick, it was (at first) painless, and it was a pretty easy fix, with pain killers included. But what if I had known for a long time that I was going to do that? What if I had known that I would lose a chunk of skin and then have to deal with stitches and a throbbing thumb for weeks? Do you think I would have still attempted that craft project? Do you think I would have ever gone anywhere near that floral box cutter? Absolutely not! Had I known the pain, the trouble, and the cost that was going to create, I wouldn’t have even considered the thought.
 

Jesus knew pain. He was a carpenter so I bet he endured his fair share of finger smashing and hand cutting. His nerves worked just like ours. His skin, the same as ours. Blood, no different. And he knew full well what his future held. Although I don’t know what it feels like to have nails driven through my hands and feet, but from the small bits of pain I have gone through in my life, I know full well that it would be excrutiating. And he didn’t have the option to take a shot or a few pills to help lessen the pain. He wasn’t given the choice to endure it any way aside from feeling it all. No numb hands and feet, rather nerves that were completely on edge, screaming from the pain, Jesus felt it all. The intial break of skin, through the muscle, through the bone, wood cutting into the back of his hands, the pressure of the hammer, thorns drawing blood from his forehead. He felt every bit of pain. But what gets me the most is that he knew this was coming. He knew how much it was going to hurt, how humiliating and painful it would be, and he did it. He faced the cross because he realized that the pain was worth it. Last night, one of my girlfriends said, "God doesn't put us through difficult sitatuons for no reason. He isn't going to allow pain in our lives just because." And that's the truth. Although painful, it's what comes from the pain that is often so beautiful, so worth it. Because the pain you endured got you to where you are now. And when you get to see it from the other side, you realize that, like the saying goes, the pain was worth the gain.
 

And so I'm grateful Jesus faced the cross for me. That He would endure such pain on my behalf, lose His blood and tears and life so that mine would be saved. I'm grateful for a Savior who was strong enough to handle the pain, conqueor the grave, and resuce a sinner like me.

 

#440 - Because He is strong enough, and willing, to handle the pain for me.

 

"He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed." - 1 Peter 2:24