Good morning,
We are in the middle of a sermon series called “Life, according to Jesus.” And this week, life, according to Jesus, is about healing.
Do you remember the first time you realized that your body had the power to heal?
When I was in kindergarten, I walked to school with the neighborhood kids. I lived in a small town and the school was about five blocks away. That winter the city tore up one of the streets. I don’t know what they were working on, maybe a broken water main. Whatever happened, for a few weeks there was a long pile of gravel that ran like a miniature mountain range along the sidewalk. Why would any kid walk on the sidewalk, why you could climb on top of a four-foot high mountain range? So each day on the way to school, we climbed up on our mountain range like the little Billy goats we were and “balanced” our way down the street on our way to school.
The weather turned cold. The gravel iced up a bit, but still, our mountain range was too tempting and too much fun. One day the thing our mothers warned us about happened. I fell, slid on the gravel and tore a pretty good gash in my knee. I don’t remember any pain, but there was a two-inch cut and lots of blood.
In those days girls were required to wear dresses to school, so I was wearing a dress that day. And because it was cold, I was wearing tan colored tights. The knee of my tights was ripped open too.
Blood was pouring out of the wound. We were closer to school than home (besides our mothers had warned us about walking on the gravel) so on we went to school.
There was a little boy in kindergarten who had a crush on me. I knew that because just days earlier when we all laid down on our rugs for nap time, (Do kindergartners still do this? Really, we spent about 30 minutes just lying there.) this particular little boy asked me to marry him. We were both five. We hadn’t learned how to read yet and we were just learning our colors. I think I turned him down, but I don’t remember for sure.
The day I cut my knee, when we arrived in our classroom, he was already there. By that time, my knee was covered in blood, and my torn tights were soaked in blood too. The teacher went into immediate first aid mode. And the little boy took one look and began screaming.
He thought my torn bloody flapping tight was my flesh. He thought the skin had been ripped off my leg. He went ballistic.
I still don’t remember any pain. I just remember his reaction. I think the teacher had to take care of him before she took care of me.
I had a scar for a long time. I checked this morning and it has faded away. As for the little boy, I assume he healed too.
I think this the first time I learned that our bodies have this amazing resiliency. A built-in ability to recover. Does this have anything to do with God?
It has everything to do with God.
Blessings to you this day. See you on Sunday.
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines Iowa 50265
515-279-0826
Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org
We worship at 8:30 and 11 on Sunday mornings and we would love to worship with you.
This week at WDMUMC:
The Youth are cooking up a Grand Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday to support their mission trip next summer. They will be serving from 11-1. You are invited!
No comments:
Post a Comment