Wounds …
Heath Adamson, in his book Grace in the Valley, is the source of this revealing account.
“Her valley began in second grade.
“A tumultuous childhood, abuse, unpredictable parents, and deep darkness made it difficult for the young girl to sit still in the classroom. She was royalty and didn’t know it. She was loved but no one treated her as such. All she knew, at such a young age, was that life was hard and God was far away.
“Her teacher, frustrated beyond belief with the young girl’s antics and misbehaviour, had finally reached her limit, and she turned to the girl’s peers as a last attempt for a solution. A vicious solution. There is no way the teacher knew how deep the darkness would be.
“I want everyone to come up to the chalkboard, one by one, and write down everything you think about her,” the teacher thundered … ”
“Nobody likes you.“
“You’re stupid.“
“Dumby.“
“Just go home.“
“One word after another written with chalk … but carved in stone on the young girl’s heart became much more than a rant or an opinion. The words were prophetic. If only someone was there to show her, at such a vulnerable time and in such a fragile state, that even there, in the midst of that pain, was love. It would take years to remember that, in her darkest valley, a bloom had opened.
“That second-grade girl matured too fast and aged too quickly. By her early twenties, she had experienced decades of pain in a few years. After a few failed marriages, a life of prostitution, children turned over to the state, and a body racked by substance abuse, she finally tried to take her own life. …
“Ending it once and for all was the only way …
“After her failed attempt at suicide, her parents were strongly cautioned to seek professional psychiatric help. In a last ditch attempt to save their daughter’s life, they made the appointment. … She walked into the doctor’s office alone as her parents waited in the lobby.
“That’s when the valley began to bloom. …
“The doctor was aware of her past. He knew she had lost everything. He saw in her eyes the emptiness she longed to forget.
“Tell me about your childhood, especially those elementary years. She began to recount …
“She recounted how her childhood had been stolen from her. It culminated in second grade when her peers prophesied on that chalkboard not what they thought but what she believed herself to be.
“She sat in his office weeping …”
“She could still see the smirks on the faces of her classmates as they pointed, laughed, and jeered. She sat there hoping someone would rescue her. There was no one to be found. It was the most painful moment of her life.
“Unjust. Unfair. Evil.
She got up from the chair, shut down the counselling session, and moved toward the door.
“I am not finished yet. Come back and sit down.”
“I mean it. I have something to say.”
“For some reason she didn’t run away like she usually did. Not this time. She turned around, sat down in the chair, wiped her tears and nose, and looked at him.
“You forgot the most important part of that day in the classroom. Remember that little boy who walked up to the board and wrote these word: “I still love you”? I was that boy. I remember you, and for years I wondered what happened to you.”
“Right then and there, it clicked in her heart as she realized that in the darkest moment of her life, she had been loved.”
Wounds healed!
We receive them! We give them! We carry them! We cover them! We forgive them!
What kinds of wounds linger in our experience or subconscious?
What are the most painful wounds that we experience in life? - physical, emotional, relational, financial, spiritual, childhood, abuse, unfaithfulness, betrayal, unfulfilled desires, abandonment, insecurity, …
All of these inflict pain at the core of our being!
Wounds are easily suppressed only to get buried in our subconscious, out of sight and out of mind, or so we think. Not only do they lie buried, they fester like a boil waiting to be excised. But unlike the cycle of a boil’s resolution, wounds can lie latent becoming septic, only to emerge decades later in some unconnected form of dis-ease or unexpected behaviour.
It was Isaiah who penned these familiar words, “He was wounded for our transgressions …”. (53:5) Many contemplate the accomplishment of this experience, while few place themselves within the horror of Messiah’s wounding.
Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ went to great lengths to display the absolute inhumanity of Roman scourging.
“Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him…” (John 19:1). This Jesus, transformed into a bleeding lump of flesh, was presented to the crowds, “Behold the man!”
Humiliation …
Crucifixion …
Burial …
Resurrection …
One of the Twelve disciples, the Twin – Thomas – missed the first reports of the resurrection but shared his perspective when told, “We have seen the Lord.”
“Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe”, justifying his monicker, Thomas the Doubter.
Eight days later …
“Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe”, Jesus invited.
Thomas, touch my wounds, feel my pain, enter into my experience – it’s Me!
“My Lord and my God!”
Because of experiencing the risen Lord the doubter became a believer.
He participated in the exodus from “The man” of Pilate’s declaration, to “My Lord and my God” of his own understanding.
Like the lady at the start of our blog, who too late realized the truth of her being loved, so Thomas came to understand the expression of being loved in Messiah.
Two different woundings provide insights into the natures of Jesus in powerfully transforming terms.
Jesus’ own prophecy became reality, “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:19, 20)
“By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24