That was my line to my son as I held him after a traumatic event this past weekend on Grand Manan. Keep in mind that this was my attempt to bring humour into a painful situation and I am not a callous and uncaring father despite how this sounds. I am sure that many of us (or maybe it is just me) try and use humour all be it sometimes awkward to try and ease ours and others pain, but I digress.
What had happened was that Vaughn, my niece Christen, my brother and myself were on a beach at my home this past weekend on Grand Manan and were collecting firewood to roast marsh mellows before Vaughn and I left the island. Vaughn and Christen became bored with searching for firewood and moved toward the water to collect some large stones to place around the sticks in a circle so it resembled a fire pit. While they did this, Geoff and I continued to get wood and as we were doing this we heard one of the most blood curdling screams either of us had ever heard. I looked toward the water and my son was sobbing and holding his hand in by his mid section. As the thoughts passed through my head of what he did to himself and how I was going to explain to his mother why we missed the ferry and why he was in the Grand Manan Hospital. So I David Hasselhoffed down the beach (not actually in slow motion) and swept my son up into my arms and asked him what had happened. Through his tears and runny nose he then explained to me that as he was lifting a rock for the fire pit another slipped and fell on his hand. I took his injured hand and his pinky finger was instantly black. Both my brother and I observed the swelling and his fingers and deemed that they were not broken which was a huge relief for me and probably my son as well.
For the next 5-10 minutes I did all I was able to do. I simply held my little man-child and spoke the most comforting words that I could think of to him and my brother rubbed his back and did the same. As we spoke he continued to cry and tell us how badly it hurt and all I could do was say "I know it hurts babe" and just hold him.
Isn't that sometimes how it feels with God? We put ourselves in situations where our fingers get jammed and we cause ourselves pain in life and our Heavenly Father holds us and speaks life into our situation. We say, "but God it hurts so bad" and He says I know my child and continues to hold us until the pain heals... and it will as we allow Him to do so.
But to be the striking difference is this. Although it was in jest, I said to my son, "Don't wipe your snot on my shirt" and our Heavenly Father does not say this because by placing our snot (our sin) on His son Jesus we can be set free from the sin that causes us so much pain in life. We have been given authority to not put ourselves in situations that cause us such pain. Sometimes we still do choose sin and sometimes life happens and we experience pain, but I am so grateful to know that Jesus did what He did because He loves us like He does and ultimately we can experience freedom and victory from those things that cause us such pain. Often times we are left with scars from these painful moment, but let's remember that Scars remind us of a healing process and that our scars do not determine our identity or destiny. Thank You God!!
Blessings,
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