Never opposed to learning new facts, I had an interesting conversation with one of the campus doctors the other day. Last weekend, I was bitten by what we can only assume was a brown recluse spider. The bite itself is rather impressive. By Thursday, it was massive (and massively infected) and the infection was spreading to the rest of my body, so I sought out some help. And she explained to me why such bites look so nasty:
Most skin wounds heal over the top, then fill in the space underneath over time, so we don't really know how long it takes them. But a spider bite heals from the bottom up, starting in the depths and building up new layers slowly, so we get to watch it heal.
I took this to heart, and I wondered how much of my life I spent waiting on God to heal my skin wound...when what I really needed was the healing of a spider bite. See, the trouble is this: if something heals over the top before filling in below it, anything that scrapes off that temporary covering brings it all back again. But if the healing process is slow, coming from the depths, then there is no danger in re-opening the wound once it is healed.
This is a major shift in my paradigm. Not long ago, I would have told you that complete healing, total restoration from the ravages of abuse is not possible, not even with God. But now, I'm not sure that thinking was accurate. I believe that as the layers fill in from the deepest parts of my soul, I will build up stronger and complete, though I will always carry a scar. But it is a scar without danger - peeling away one layer of scar will not reveal wound; it will reveal only more scar, more toughness, more healing.
How much time have you spent asking God to heal your skin wound, all the while missing out on Him healing your spider bite?
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