Our daughter foolishly did something last month that resulted in a severed tendon in her forefinger. Not good. She's a mom; a piano player; a busy person who needs all of her fingers.
The doc who did the surgery warned her to be very, very careful to keep the brace on and the finger extended at all times. It was a one-time deal. If it didn't work, there was no second chance.
Imagine her horror when she woke up the night she got the new brace and found it had come off while she was sleeping! She figured her finger would be useless for the rest of her life. She was resigned to her fate. She even did research to find instruments that are designed to hold the knuckles in place so the finger can be used a bit.
Today, we went to see the surgeon, expecting the worst.
He got her to take of the splint, and move her finger down, then slowly up.
It worked.
IT WORKED! The finger has movement, and the doc is very positive. If she is careful and does the stretching she is supposed to do, she should have full range of motion in a couple of months!
Psalm 145:9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
My daughter didn't deserve this mercy. She acted foolishly, and deserved the consequence of a useless finger.
But God didn't think so.
God healed that finger, I have no doubt.
Isaiah 63:7
The Lord's Mercy Remembered
I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
In Matthew 9, Jesus tells the critical Pharisees to go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." Jesus is quoting from Hosea 6:6 which reads, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
God wants our hearts. He wants us to know Him and love Him, to understand His covenant, and to walk humbly with Him day by day, loving Him and His poor despised people. The ceremonies, sacrifices and rituals were designed to teach the people that they needed atonement (without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins) and that God was Holy and demanded perfection, and that they needed a Great High Priest and a perfect Lamb.
Jesus is that Great High Priest. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Recognizing Who Jesus is and what He has accomplished on the cross should bring us to our knees in awe and make our lips sing forth His praises in thanksgiving for all He has done. The proper response to His great mercy is that we walk humbly before Him.
Okay, this is where the rubber meets the road.
I am just as critical and rotten as the Pharisees who condemned Jesus for eating with sinners and tax collectors.
Why, you ask...
I have a husband who is a smoker. He has bladder cancer. I want him to quit smoking. I desperately want him to quit. I hate everything about his smoking. He's been told by the doctor that it is imperative for him to stop sucking on those cigarettes, and that there is a direct correlation between his smoking and his bladder cancer.
I have told my husband that if he doesn't quit, I am not going to accompany him on his trips to the doctor. I am not going with him to get the scope he has to go through on Tuesday. If there are signs of more cancer, I am not going to go with him as he drives to the hospital and makes that dreaded trek to the cancer ward to have more horrid treatments.
I figured that I was loving him by doing "tough love" - not enabling him to continue his filthy habit that has done so much damage to our family over the past 36 years.
Today, God reminded me that he desires mercy, not sacrifice. He wants His children to be like Him - to steadfastly love sinners, the poor despised people on whom He has set His affection.
God loves Rick.
He has called me to love Rick.
So, I don't need to condemn him, to not eat with him, to avoid him as the Pharisees avoided the tax collectors and sinners.
I need to love him.
I guess I'll be going with him to the hospital on Tuesday. Sigh.
