“Don’t give up or let hurting turn you away. There is blessing in the wound. If you are willing to push through the pain.”
Loren Thornburg
We get used to it...woundedness. We don’t even know it’s there. It becomes our way of life until something hits against it. We cringe and and wonder what was so painful. It seems the event didn’t warrant that amount of pain. Although this may be true, there is something even more true. It’s not the first time. We’ve been wounded there before, only it never healed. I find much hope in the African Proverb that says, “the blessing lies close to the wound,” because I’ve seen this to be true. Looking back on my healing journey I can’t help but almost be thankful for some of my wounds because of what the healing journey has brought in and through me. Wounds can be painful, especially when things in our life are pressing up against them. Yet that’s the pain that tells me something isn’t right, it’s not healed. It's also this pain that points me to healing if I let it. Healing seems impossible there in the face of the wound, but it is actually closer than ever before. The freedom of healing is the blessing that lies so close to the wound you can’t even see it’s there. It’s the blessing of healing, hope, endurance and faith found only when wounded. Don’t stop with the pain, the blessing lies close.
“He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds!”
1 Peter 2:24 NLT
His wounds became your healing. We are healed because of the wounds that Jesus bore on the cross. He did that for you. So that you can live. Not just live, but live abundantly in a personal relationship with Him. This wound was very personal, with a greater weight than we will ever know. The blessing lied close to the wound. Those wounds brought healing from our sins that we could be free to live for what is right and have new life. If that weren’t enough through them we now have access to relationship with the Father. In this relationship there is much healing. We are blessed, healed, new, whole, free, and confident because of His wounds. He loves to do the same with yours. Let Him show you the blessing He has that lies close to your wound.
Two Other Thoughts: A Quote and A Song
“Like Jacob, you must hold on to Him. And like Jacob, you will be wounded. Like Jacob, you must say, ‘I will not let You go unless you bless me,’ and then the wound, the tender hip thereafter, the blessing…when you plead to know He is here, and when He answers you, and helps you to meet Him here, you will be wounded by that meeting. The wound will help you know, and that is the blessing.”
Quote from a Father at a Monastery
There's a train leaving your heart tonight.
There's a silence inside your head and you're running from it.
Down the tracks on a midnight line.
There's a red moon in the sky and you're running from it.
But I'm coming for you wherever you go.
Wrestling angels till dawn breaks through
There's a blessing and a wound and you're running from it.
When all your demons are at your door
It's a soldier they're looking and you're running from it.
But I'm coming for you wherever you go.
Across the sea, the space between everything you think
You know - the things you keep and bury deep underneath
The melting snow - I'll follow. I'll follow.
Fathers & mothers don't always come through
But I'm never gonna stop following you
Prophets and lovers don't always hold true
But I'm never gonna stop falling for you
So when your wine's all gone and your well runs dry,
Open your hands and look into my eyes; all that you see here,
You'll soon leave behind, so open your hands and look into my eyes
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