A gash in my leg

There is a big gash in my leg.

Yep, it is a gash. Here is a beautiful close up. See the fatty deposits under my skin? That is what keeps me warm and what protects my bones and organs from evil cabinets.

So I was cleaning at my dad's house and jumped off the kitchen counter (I was cleaning a window above the sink) and landed right on the cabinet door that I did not close. I was planning on going on a long run tonight but I could not because I was bleeding profusely. I sat at the kitchen table holding a napkin on it to stop the blood and said "Jesus heal it! Heal it!" It didn't really hurt that bad, mostly it just kind of throbbed. I think I will have a bruise as well as a giant gash. I tried to have faith that my flesh would be restored before my eyes but nothing happened. So then I went to the word and proclaimed health to all my flesh, according to Proverbs 4:22:
"My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh." (prov. 4:20-22)

Then I sat there some more and tried to think about if the devil was trying to destroy me, or if there really are just accidents. I was also wondering if sin causes accidents. Somehow sin causes disease, so does sin cause accidents to? It does say that Satan is always trying to trip us up and make us stumble, right? Well, I know God is good and does not want my leg gashed open so I prayed "Lord, heal my leg and show me if there is anything spiritual in this situation."

My mom was on her way over with bandaids and gauze (of course my dad only had the smallest bandaids ever and they did nothing) and my little sister was finishing our surprise birthday cleaning for my dad (he is out of town). As I sat there I wasn't freaked out or anything, but I really did just want my mom to come and tend to my wounds. I was really glad she was coming over. So she gets there and is with two of her male co-workers whom she went on a beach walk with. She right away examines my gash and starts cleaning it and getting the blood off and the two guys say "It's not that bad. Just a little scrape. It'll be ok."
As this moment all I honestly wanted was my mom to hold me and take care of me. I am reading Captivating and just read about how God made women sensitive and nurturing in a way that is different from men. It seriously had an example of how men and women would react differently to a child getting hurt and it was exactly the way this was playing out. The woman nurtures and touches and cares for the hurting individual and the guy says "Oh, cool battle wound!" and tries to down play it.

So the moral of this story is that God really did teach me something powerful through this wound. What the enemy might have meant for evil (if he was involved in this), God turns into good. I babysit a lot and more often than not I try to down play little injuries because I think kids need to get tough. I realize I have been acting like a guy and saying "Shake it off. Cool wound." I'm not going to do this anymore because this response did not help me at all today. From now on if a kid I'm watching gets hurt, whether it's a stubbed toe or a broken bone, I am going to hug them and rub the hurt place and be sensitive. Because that is what I want if I get hurt. That is what we all want. Even guys. On some international soccer teams, if a guy goes down the whole medical team runs out there and right away takes a sponge and starts rubbing the hurt area. Usually they do this for a minute and then the player gets right back up and keeps playing. Is there healing in a sponge with a little water? No. But there is healing in nurturing attention and touch. Our God is a Healer and he cares about all of our wounds, from a splinter in our finger to a deadly disease, from feeling hurt because a friend did not call us back to the pain caused by the death of a loved one. He is the great Physician, he is Jehovah Rapha. The Lord who Heals You. Thank you Jesus!