Reflection for Friday, Mar 7, 2008

Romans 11:25-36

"33 O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34'For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?'
35'Or who has given a gift to him,
to receive a gift in return?'
36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen. "

I got a call from my mom on Tuesday night that her youngest sister, my aunt, was in the hospital with severe pain in her abdomen, a week after doctors suspected she might have leukemia which thankfully she does not. She was doped up on morphine as tests were being run to find out what the problem was, but the pain only increased but the doctors could not find out what was wrong, and several times tried to release her to go home. Her stomach became distended, swollen, and my Dad, a physician of forty years, who thought she should go into surgery in the event of appendicitis or an infection from a past surgery had to threaten the 20-something resident, "if you don't take her into surgery now, I will call in my own team of surgeons to do it for you." To surgery she went where they discovered scar tissue from years ago that had begun to envelop a section of colon and threatened several other organs. The surgery was successful.

We all live with scar tissue, most of which is unseen, some of which can grow and fetter internally until it begins to hurt other organs causing great pain or worse, takes away our life. The conditions of our unfair planet and our unfair lives brimming with people who do us good and some who do us bad can scratch and tear at our insides and sometimes overwhelm us. Also this week my Uncle Johnny, who is as responsible for my existence as my own grandfather, passed away. In 1938 while teaching English at Charles University in Prague, he befriended my grandfather, his student, and was responsible for among other things, convincing him to return to America with him before the outbreak of the looming war and in the wake of the disappearance of his family to a Nazi concentration camp where they all were exterminated. My grandfather's scar tissue was so great, he never talked about it, it was only the ancient recollections of Uncle Johnny that we could try to understand what was buried there. Uncle Johnny was in his nineties and had lived for years in assisted living, but his loss still looms monumental and tragic for my family.

The wisdom and knowledge of God are like surgical scissors, forceps, and instruments to cut away at the scar tissue that weighs us down, but we often forget to implement these gifts perhaps because we forget that we can individually be both patient and doctor, with God's help. Healing is not a quick and painless process. My other grandfather, a Baptist missionary and preacher for many decades is fond of saying "When you talk to the Lord, no breath is lost, so breathe on. When you walk with the Lord, no strength is lost, so walk on. And when you wait on the Lord, no time is lost, so wait on." Amen.

by Breisen