Cleaning the wounds

A Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds...--Luke 10:33-34

The next step in repairing a windshield chip is, you have to clean out the break using a small tool or compressed air. You need to remove excess glass, grit, etc., before you can seal the crack.

What's true of wounded windshields is also true of wounded bodies. The Good Samaritan when he came upon the injured man, he cleaned his wounds with wine. The alcohol in the wine served as a disinfectant. It probably hurt like crazy on the raw wounds, but the pain was necessary to prevent infection. The Good Samaritan then poured oil over the cleansed wounds to soothe and start the healing process.

Jesus deals with our wounded souls in the same way. He pours over us His Precious Blood and Water, flowing from His Pierced Side, to cleanse us. Then He sends the oil of His Holy Spirit to heal us.

Lord Jesus, please, when I start to complain because the process of being cleansed is painful, help me to remember that it is necessary to go through the pain in order to be healed. Amen.

Of wounded windshields and souls

There was one thing that I missed initially when I bought my car, a tiny windshield chip. It was on the lower passenger side, and so tiny that I didn't see it until the sun hit it at a certain angle. Because I saw it before I'd even gotten home, they took it back and tried to fix it. It initially was smooth and looked fixed, but within a couple of hours, a tiny little pit had formed where the crack had been. I didn't want to risk waiting, so I brought it into Henderson Glass. The guy there said it looked like the "cap" that you put over the fix to seal it had come off somehow. Once a crack has been filled, he said, you can't re-fill it, so there was nothing more to be done, humanly speaking. So I'm praying that the Lord will prevent the little pit from cracking further.

So that I would understand what was going on, I did some research on the whole process of repairing windshields. (I enjoy researching so much, if the Internet had been around when I first went to college, I probably would have never graduated. :-)) I found what looked like a good series of videos on repairing windshields. I was struck by how many of the steps in the process resemble how the Lord often deals with our wounded souls. I'll try to comment on some of them over the next few days.