The Wound;A Place of Grace. By: (C.C)

God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. ( Vance Havner)

We are broken. It is in our brokenness that God shines forth His fullness and enables us to be whole. It is through our weakness that God provides His strength. In surrendering to the will of God and our need for Him, this idea of embracing weakness and the shortcomings in our life serves a purpose by welcoming the immeasurable mercy and healing power of our Lord. By owning the fact that we are not perfect, that we are very broken, and that we are in need of our Divine Physician we are most inclined to receive the grace of God and the understanding of our place in His plan. There is beauty in our brokenness. 

   So often we are tempted to shy away from our wounds, our brokenness, our sufferings, and our sin. We are often afraid to let even God into these places. We create for ourselves not a hidden place of safety, but a personal prison cell entrapped by our own motive to protect, deny, and avoid the very place where we need the most love; where we need the most healing. 

  It is in this place that our Lord wishes to venture and take these burdens from us. It is an act of faith and trust to be completely bare before our Lord exposing our wounds. When Jesus appeared to the disciples he came in peace, acknowledging His own wounds and showed them. It was through this gesture that the disciples recognized Jesus. 

   It is said that that through His wounds we are healed, and potentially it is through our own wounds that we most touch Him; through our sufferings we come to touch the wounds of Jesus. Through our own pain we are able to have some minute understanding of Jesus Christ crucified. When we embrace this cross then all of our trials, pains, and burdens become a way of connecting us further with our Lord and allow us to experience the peace and joy of the Resurrection within our own lives. 

    Our suffering leads us to the fullness of love and into the love of God for each of us if we remain open and surrendered in trust. The place that once burned with pain becomes a place of grace. Our wound becomes a blessing, something we can use to serve God, to relate to our brothers and sisters in their brokenness, and to help others draw nearer to our Lord with trust in His healing power and love for us. 

   It is because I am broken and imperfect that God is most merciful. It is because of my wounds and my sufferings that I can best serve our Lord. It is so because he sought me and I surrendered, enabling Him to shine forth His strength where I was weak, and His fullness where I was broken. It is because He loves all of us unconditionally. In looking back from where I stand today I can rejoice in the Lord when faced with remembering the wounds of my past, and the experiences lived. "What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?" (Psalm116:12) I shall return love and trust. Reminding my brothers and sisters in Christ that Jesus longs to heal our wounds and use them as a means of sharing His love, His mercy, and His compassion. Let us recall the woman in the Gospel reading today and her great faith, she knew that by simply touching the garment of our Lord that she would be healed. May we seek to touch Jesus and be in His presence, trusting that He too will heal us and meet us in our brokenness with love.