When we cook, we want the sharpest blade possible. That T-bone steak? The meat has to come off the bone. Ham, no matter how meaty and tender, also has to be carved off the bone. Even vegetables require the sharpest knife possible, or else all we will do is bruise the food and damage its appearance.
Yet, that same blade can cut other things, too. Get a finger too close while slicing that onion, and the blood will flow. Painfully, too.
The same is true during cleanup. The sharper the knife, the more care we have to take to ensure we don’t cut ourselves.
What about our hearts? What about when life is that sharp blade, and it slices us to the core? Our job, our health, or even those we are closest to; what about when life slices those things away from us, and we can do nothing except cry out in despair?
The Word gives us bandages for our wounds, padding that we can wrap around the injuries, so that we can heal and move on.
Let’s take a look at six of God’s healing bandages:
Bandage #1: Proverbs 3:5
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
Sometimes we simply have to step out in trust, and accept that God knows more than we do. He has all of time in his hands; we can see only the present moment.
Bandage #2: Ephesians 4:31-32
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ forgave you.”
Life cannot be allowed to take the joy of God from us. Our relationship with other people is more important. Even in our distress, we must reach out, allowing God to keep us connected, one to another.
Bandage #3: Isaiah 43:18-19
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
God has a new path for us, if only we can turn loose of the old. If all we do is look back, we will never find his new direction. Instead, we will run into every obstruction in our way, even the ones God does not intend.
Bandage #4: Philippians 3:13-14
“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Only God can help us heal our wounds. All he asks from us is that we remember our job: to win others to Christ by the example we live out every day.
Bandage #5: Proverbs 29:11
“A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.”
We will hurt. We will know pain. However, it is the love of God that others must see in us.
Bandage #6: Philippians 4:6
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
God is our source. When we are in pain, he wants us to turn to him, so that he may reach back unto us. Then his healing can cross that great divide, flooding into our places of hurt, and healing our every wound.
Life has a way of hitting us broadside. That is what it means to be human. God doesn’t prevent life from happening to us, but when it does, he will be our bandage. He will place our feet on solid ground, and we will find our peace in him.
When life beats us up, God’s love wraps us up.
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