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I have
previously reflected on the following experience, but not having ready access
to that story among far too many files, and far too little time, I feel
inclined to reflect on it again.
A few years
ago I decided to trim my neighbor’s tree. Generally, I would not have been
quite so altruistic, but the limbs of the tree hung over my driveway, and as
spring approached each year a healthy supply of oak pollen showered my car, and
the pavement upon which it was parked.
And since
there was a basketball post just beneath the offending tree, it seemed good to
me to prop my straight ladder against it, and having done so, I set about the
task at hand.
Did I
mention round posts and straight ladders are altogether incompatible? (Well,
they are).
Suddenly,
the ladder accomplished a task for which it was never intended. It became
mobile. And I became its unintended pilot. Given the choice to ride the thing
to the ground, or jump, I chose the latter.
And as I
“winged my way to worlds unknown” I chose to land upright, (or something
approximating it) and twisted my body just enough in my failed flight to the
concrete to land on my right foot.
I knew. I
just knew
My ankle was
broken
After lying
there a moment, and using my car for leverage, I stood upon my left foot,
hop-scotched to my front door, opened it, and made my wife aware of my injury.
Fast forward
several weeks, and I found myself in a prep room at Tampa General Hospital
preparing to have my ankle reconstructed; since it was not only broken, but it
was badly shattered.
Just prior
to being wheeled into the operating room a nurse administered an injection to
my right thigh, and explained that shortly thereafter my leg would develop a
state of paralysis, and that when I awoke I would experience this condition for
several hours prior to the restoration of feeling.
As she
predicted, when I came to I was provided an entre into a state of being to
which I had never before been privy.
For a full
65 years I had enjoyed complete use of all four limbs. Suddenly, I was short
one. Initially, my paralytic experience was nothing more, nothing less than
interesting. The natural scheme of things in which we move, and live and have
our being had been interrupted. Perhaps if I expended a little more thought, a
little more will power I could lift my leg an inch off the bed. (Well,… no).
Perhaps if I focused all my energies on my little toe, I could wiggle that tiny
digit. (Nice try).
Nothing.
Nada. Zero. Zilch
By this time
I had gone from being an interested observer to a concerned participant.
I imagined
the worst. I mean, I could just see myself being discharged in this condition,
and having to use a cane the last third of my life; while all the while
dragging a useless limb behind me.
Alarmed, I
spoke,
“Nurse, uh,
you’re probably aware that my leg is paralyzed. Uhmm, does this sorta thing
ever go wrong? Is there any chance I’m stuck with this dead leg for the
duration?”
“Nurse
Simms” assured me that the paralysis would abate, and that I’d regain complete
sensation and mobility in the limb within a few hours.”
And true to
her word, that is exactly how things fell together.
My nephew,
his name was “Wade,” was born with a malady referred to as “Spina Bifida.”
While he had some use of his arms and hands, his legs and feet were paralyzed
from birth, and he was dependent on a wheelchair throughout his all too brief
life. And though Wade endured countless surgeries, and a significant amount of
pain and humiliation, he never seemed to complain, and it was if the angels had
loaned him a permanent smile.
During the
two decades Providence allowed Wade to grace this planet, I sympathized for and
with him. However, it was only after his death, and my subsequent injury,
surgery and (temporary) paralysis that I could truly empathize; since it was only after my own experience that I had any
real hope of understanding what ‘til then was beyond my understanding.
I think this
is a major reason Jesus came to the earth. In the eons which preceded God
assuming human form, and adding the three letter suffix, “man” to His title, He
had never been subject to flesh, frailty, fatigue or the limits of time and
space. Suddenly, having purposely limited Himself, He was given personal access
to the human condition; in a manner not heretofore possible.
Having
experienced momentary paralysis I can empathize with the disabled in a way that
I could have never hoped to do before the event.
Having taken
on flesh and having lived among us, I am confident that our Lord Jesus Christ
was afforded the wherewithal to empathize with mankind in a manner in which He
had never before been able.
My favorite
passage of scripture speaks to this concept, and my personal experience which I
have just recounted causes it to be that much more precious to me.
“We have not a High Priest who cannot
be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but He was in all points
tempted as we are; yet without sin.
Let us come boldly to the throne of
grace that we may receive mercy for our failures, and grace to help in the time
of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)
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