All it took was a slip of the knife while skinning a beast. The thumb took the impact and blood was spilt instantly.
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The pain came with the same rush but was still felt long after the blood had stopped running. That’s not unusual. Pain often remains after the cut’s been inflicted.
It seemed crazy to spoil a trip with medical attention so we fashioned a bandage out of a wet wipe and went on with things as normal or almost normal.
“It is amazing how something so innocuous... can produce such devastating consequences...”
I’ve had numerous cuts in my life and none of them have been pleasant, but this one saw me admitted to hospital for two day being intravenously fed antibiotics. I remember walking to the doctors expecting him to say, “Toughen up Rick, it just a little cut that can’t even be stitched”.
It is fair to say that this cut and the doctors reaction got my attention. It was not a big cut but left unattended the infection showed surprising potential to disrupt my life. In fact left untreated it could have damaged my life permanently.
It is amazing how something so innocuous, so easily dismissed as not all that bad can produce such devastating consequences if ignored. It reminded me what a blessing it is to live in a country where medical attention is so good: doctors who leave nothing to chance, nurses who treat wounds with a kindness that my carelessness with knives probably didn’t deserve and medications stronger than an infection’s power to ruin you.
I think it was Rod Stewart who sang the song The First Cut is the Deepest. I don’t think it was intended as a statement of theology but there is no doubt when our hearts were first cut from God there was never a deeper one with greater affect.
A large bandaged thumb, pain that makes itself known through gauze and drugs to be taken every four hours keep your attention and get you thinking.
Cuts are not unique to knives and there are some wounds the pharmacist can’t help you with. Some of the worst cuts in life come via an instrument that can be both blunt and sharp…the tongue.
A person can have a sharp tongue, a loose tongue, a blunt tongue, even suffer a slip of the tongue. Sarcasm requires the tongue. Lies drip from a tongue. Slander’s venue is the tongue.
But the tongue is not the heart of the matter. The heart is what matters to the tongue. Jesus Christ said a lot about the tongue: “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of”; “the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart and these defile them…”
“It seems that the worst cuts can be self inflicted...”
It’s those last few words of Jesus I am confronted by. It seems that the worst cuts can be self inflicted and that they can defile you. That is to say, a heart left untreated will infect everything and ruin you.
I think it was Rod Stewart who sang the song The First Cut is the Deepest. I don’t think it was intended as a statement of theology but there is no doubt when our hearts were first cut from God there was never a deeper one with greater affect. The infection that followed has been epidemic and life septic.
What would you think, if having cut myself and discovered that the cut was seriously infected I simply ignored it? What would you think, if the doctor offered me life saving medication and I neglected or decided not to take it?
Be careful! Remember the tongue is a window to the heart. Politely put you might suggest that I was being really foolish.
What might we think, if we discovered a self-inflicted injury that is life threatening and we ignored it? What might we think, if God offered us a remedy for healing the heart and we ignored it?
Well I would argue that this is really foolish and it would indicate the cut has been so serious that nothing short of a miracle could save you.
You know God is still in the business of doing miracles. You might like to turn to Him.