It Won’t Always Look Like That

My son, C.J., was excited to get outside on a warm day in March. So he went outside and starting running his Tonka bulldozer up and down the driveway – both hands on the top of it and pushing as fast as his four year old legs would take him. Then he hit a crack in the driveway. Face, meet concrete. It was not a pleasant introduction. Sharie and I then heard that sound that every parent dreads, the intense cry that means your child is hurt, and it’s more than a skinned knee. Grandpa brought him in and blood and tears were flowing.

After a few minutes we got him calmed down, got the scrapes and busted lip washed off. We applied the antibiotic ointment and gave him some children’s Tylenol. He spent some essential time in the rocking chair with Mama and he was okay.  But when we took his picture he didn’t want to see it. He didn’t want to look in the mirror either. No biggy, he was soon back to his old self in no time, playing Lego Batman on the Playstation.

Later that night it was bath time so I took C.J. into the bathroom to get the tub filled. After getting the water started I turned and saw my little man staring at himself in the mirror.

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]He stood silent with a shocked expression as he stared at his injured face. It was then that I saw the silent tears start to flow down his cheeks.  You know, it’s bad enough when a child cries loudly in pain. But my buddy boy just stood there crying in silence. His scraped up face, swollen eye and fat lip affected him deeply. He wasn’t used to seeing himself that way.[/pullquote]

I choked back my own tears and tried to keep a positive attitude as I praised him for being so brave and tough. He seemed to respond well to that and we got through the careful bath with a minimum of tears. We got him dried off and he was happy in his favorite jammies. I tucked him in and told him a story. That night he wanted Lilo and Stitch. I was glad because I just so happen to do a bang-up Stitch voice!

He said his prayers and then I prayed for him and we talked about his ouchie. We talked about how much it bothered him to see his face like that. But then I said, “It won’t always look like that. It’s going to get better. You’ll go to sleep and your body will work at fixing all those scrapes and swollen bits. Every morning when you wake up it’ll be a little bit better. Our bodies do a lot of good stuff when we sleep; God made us that way.” He was asleep in less than two minutes.

Now, I know that in the course of his life, that ordeal wasn’t much. He healed, and there wasn’t even any scarring. No big deal. It’s just part of the life of a child.

But there are some scrapes that go beyond childhood ouchies and boo boos, the kind of hurts that affect all of us at the level of our hearts and souls. Whether we’ve been harmed by someone we should have been able to trust, or we have made bad choices that took us to places we never planned to go, life hurts sometimes. We get cut and scraped, bruised and battered, and when we take a hard look at our lives we don’t like what we see.  We don’t like how our lives look after we’ve been hurt through no fault of our own. Or maybe we look at ourselves and are frustrated because we can’t seem to get past a certain addiction or pattern of thought. Or, maybe we just can’t understand why we don’t seem to be transformed into the person God want us to be quickly enough. Sometimes we cry out to God, “Why can’t I get better, why can’t I get past this? I don’t want to look like this!”

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]I wonder if God ever looks at you, looking at yourself, and says to your soul, “It won’t always look like that. It’s going to get better. Keep walking with me. Every day when you walk with me, it’ll be a little bit better. I made you that way.”[/pullquote]

Can I let you in on a big secret? God is looking over your shoulder right now, as you look at your reflection, and he is speaking those words to your soul. Right now. There is hope to be found in the transforming and healing work of Christ. But it’s not a hope that’s found out there, somewhere, in the great beyond, like some theological pie in the sky. No, it’s a living hope. It’s active. It’s healing, transforming, refining, joy-giving. It’s a saving hope!

So what do you do — You can’t just put a bandage on a frustrated, aching soul. Your role in God’s transforming process is to just keep living and breathing, keep seeking and following, keep reading the Word and praying, keep worshipping and fellowshipping, keep loving and serving, keep walking in that living hope, keep on being transformed — Keep – On – Being – Saved! God is doing this work in you.

You might not be happy where you are right now. Just remember, it won’t always look like this. It’s going to get better. You’re going to get better. Every day, when you follow Him, you’ll get a little bit better, a little stronger, a little more like Christ. God made you that way!