Thought for Today
Genesis 3:17 And to the man he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
Psalm 38:17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.
John 16:20 Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.
John 16:22 So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
Just one more Thought on what I am now titling “The Great Ice Lesson of ’24.” For our youngest granddaughter, a very accomplished ice skater, that title would connotate something entirely different than it does for her grandfather who cannot even stand erect on ice skates. She is now learning the joys of pond skating while off at college. I am experiencing the aftermath of a lost battle with an icy driveway.
Have you ever had the occasion to notice that scrapes, bumps and bruises sometimes ache and are more bothersome 2-3 days after inflicted? I fell Tuesday. Yesterday I was a tad sore. Today, I’m noticing aches and pains I didn’t even know about yesterday. My choice of verses above may be a bit melodramatic. Certainly I cannot compare my own situation to what Jesus was trying to prepare the disciples they would experience following the Crucifixion. That admission notwithstanding, I am struggling this morning not to sneeze, hiccup or do anything else to surprise my muscles or my ribcage.
Why pain? I have heard pain described as our body’s warning system, there to alert us to potential dangers and problems. I can attest that my warning system is doing a good job of alerting me . . . after the fact. It has been suggested that what I am being alerted to is the advisability of paying more heed to Greta’s warnings and admonitions. I am taking that warning to heart.
Why did God include pain in our design specifications? I might have suggested an LED panel discretely located just below my ribcage. I could then see a blinking red light displayed to tell me that I have scrapes, bumps and bruises. Admittedly, since I learned early in my engineering career that I do not enjoy designing anything, and since I am definitely not God, it is unquestionably presumptuous for me to suggest much of anything to the Creator of Creation. Hopefully, all the questions of the whys and wherefores of pain will be covered in my Orientation to Heaven at the appropriate time.
As a Christian, what I am taking from those scrapes, bumps and bruises, from the aches and pains of my overtaxed muscles, is that God has provided me with a second opinion of all of my hairbrained ideas. Also, I notice in Jesus’ words to his beloved disciples a promise for the future, “you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy,” and “So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
There are those days when we all wish Eve had opted for a peach cobbler instead of apple (or whatever “Genesis 3:3 the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden” was). Would life be better without pain and suffering? We cannot know. We can only know life as it really is; and, life includes some measure of pain and suffering, some element of scrapes, bumps and bruises.
What we can know, should know is that God has repeatedly shown us God’s love for us and for all of God’s creatures and Creation. How much? God sent God’s Son to show us! John 3:16 has become so ubiquitous, maybe even trivialized to a degree by all of the handwritten placards at sporting events, that we sometimes lose sight of its amazing importance. Our pain and suffering, our scrapes, bumps and bruises are small prices to pay in comparison to the Incarnation, Ministry, Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Son of God.
Maybe humanity’s theme song should be Jesus Loves Me. Somehow, even humming that beloved childhood hymn makes my discomfort today seem much more tolerable. Next time you lose a battle with the ice, or suffer any other indignity resulting in pain and suffering, our scrapes, bumps and bruises, try humming or singing that theme song.
Stay safe, sing out God’s love and Jesus’ love, trust God,
Pastor Ray