God’s Grace in Injuries & Healing

In a post from last month, No longer a child , I told about an accident and injury that occurred, as well as the change in mindset concerning such things from childhood to manhood. The wounds really were not pretty, so I refrained from posting a picture at that time.

Since that time, the wounds have healed very nicely. While they still are not pretty, they are less gruesome than when they were open wounds. So, perhaps it will not be terribly uncouth, or at least not inexcusably so, to post a picture for those who would like to see how well they have healed.

From this photo it is easy to see that it could have been a very serious and long term injury. The Lord prevented more serious injury, allowing the lacerations only to extend through the layers of the skin and not into the flesh, tendons and ligaments, and cartilage and bone beneath. As can be seen, the tissue has knitted together again.

God’s gracious activity cannot be properly estimated, unless one stops trying to be an accountant and simply confess that God is gracious and active in all things. If our eyes and hearts are open to perceive the truth, we see Him at work for our good in all things, even in our carelessness, our weakness, our foolishness, our failures and mistakes, and yes, even in our sinfulness. God’s merciful and gracious love and activity are not limited to what we count as good. His goodness and mercy endure forever. They fill the universe and beyond. If we do not see this, it is because we have our eyes and hearts closed and misdirected.

As my wife prepared to receive her evening’s rest, we briefly discussed this matter. We especially spoke of the future being something that we are not to seek to know beyond knowing that it is as God has promised. We discussed how the worldly premise that the future is what matters being a false premise because what matters is life. “What then is the purpose of life?”

The purpose of life is to live. And life is to be lived in communion with God and also with one another in Him. I expressed that when our hearts are focused upon this, nothing else matters for then all is good. She asked, “No matter what?” I said, “No matter what, because when this is the focus, all else is insignificant.”

God truly is good and His mercy endures forever. He calls us into the communion of His Son, through whom we partake of all goodness even forevermore. When we believe this, then our daily bread is abundantly sufficient and completely satisfying and nothing in this world can take that from us.

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No longer a child

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1 Corinthians 13:11)

Yesterday I had an experience that brought this passage to my mind. I cut a gash in my leg just above my knee. This gash is not far from one from my youth, when I was teenager. It is about the same size and severity. But when I was a child, this gash was debilitating. It kept me from participating in PE in Junior High School until it was healed. But yesterday, I examined it to see that it was a clean laceration that cut completely through the skin but did no serious damage to other tissue beneath the skin, walked to the truck, acquired my first aid supplies, applied some antibiotic ointment, a bandage, gauze and tape to hold the bandage in place and the wound closed, and finished the day’s work.

Truly a man thinks and acts differently than a child. Part of this comes from the responsibility of adulthood and manhood. A man dare not let the troubles of the world beat him down. He has responsibilities to fulfill. So he presses onward.

I tended the wound more thoroughly when I arrived home. My wife was aghast. This is why I did not tell her of the event when we spoke on the phone. She heard discouragement in my voice and commented on it, but since there was no reason to share the cause with her at that time I waited. I will be out on the job site a bit later again today.

St. Paul used this contrast to make a point regarding a person’s spiritual walk through this world. He used this contrast to demonstrate the difference between what we perceive now and what we will be shown when the Lord brings us to heaven. When we see and know the Triune God face to face, we will understand fully that the many gifts that He has bestowed in this world were insignificant contrasted to the restoration to His Holy Communion. Then all of the struggles and trials of living in this world of sin will fade, as will the many temporal gifts. But the Holy Trinity remains, as God gives Himself to us through His means of grace we receive the everlasting gifts of faith, hope, love, the gifts of the very presence and activity of the Trinity in our lives. When a Christian grows to understand this, spiritual maturity has been reached. No longer is the person impressed by this or that spiritual gift, and much less so with the worldly gifts. Now the person appreciates and relies upon the gift of God Himself, that which remains forevermore.

Remember, Be Careful!

How often do mothers and fathers cry out with these words to their children and wives to their husbands? “Remember, Be Careful!”

Yet even while being careful, things like this still happen.





This is the second day, when it looks much better. I’ve started soaking it in vinegar today, to help reduce the swelling. It looked rather bad when I pulled my hand from my work glove.

It was the end of a long hard week, with many challenges and long laborious hours. But Saturday night was the end of a good week. Overall it had been quite productive and all the challenges had been met successfully and without dangerous incident. Saturday had been a long day. One tree had been felled, other trees and their canopies raised and their deadwood and internal growth cleaned. The limbs have been cut up and chipped. The logs and stump had been cut and all but the last load of the largest logs had been loaded and hauled. It was after eight o’clock and darkness was encroaching and as I was swinging one of the logs into the pickup, I did not swing quite highly enough, and the log slammed my finger against the edge of the tailgate. The finger and log rolled over the edge of the tailgate into the truck. I rolled the log off my finger and cried out, “Ow! Shoot! Oh that hurts! Ahhh!” (Yes, those are the actual words.)

Then I looked at my glove to see whether I’d torn it. I had not, but I observed the flow of red oozing into the fabric over my knuckle. Extreme pain and red are signs that things are not well. The man who had taken some of the logs and was helping me load the ones he did not want asked me if I had broken my finger. Thankfully, no. I removed the glove and found that I peeled back the skin from over my knuckle. It was bleeding but not badly. So I asked the customer for a bandage, and a few minutes later, having found one in the house, he applied it to my finger. By then I was feeling dizzy, nauseous, and even faint. I knelt down on the ground, and then lay in the grass for a couple of minutes. Then I finished loading the truck, drove home, unloaded the truck, and went in to tell Stephanie, who helped me clean it and apply peroxide and a new bandage.




Now this is what I must present to the world as I try to keep my finger straight so as not to reopen the wound. I hope that others understand.



Such occasions as this are truly observances of the goodness of the Lord. Certainly the injury could have been much worse, which He prevented. But even beyond that, it is an occasion to observe the marvelous design that He created in the functioning of our bodies. That such an injury can occur, and yet the skin can pull together and mend again, that the bruised bone also will heal, the trauma to the flesh will be repaired, and all without any work on my part. Such is the goodness of the Lord. Such is His good and gracious will. Such is His providence.

Therefore, though I am frustrated with myself for becoming too tired to work carefully and for my misjudgment that caused me this injury, nevertheless I find myself thankful to God for His great mercy and continual protection and never ending display of His love.