Wounded...

I went to visit my great aunt and uncle this Saturday, so we could see my other great uncle and some distant cousins or something. It was a nice time, although it did have a twinge of awkwardness that comes with forced mingling. And they are family, so I think there is this dynamic where everyone feels like they should hit it off and be fast friends, so silence and lack of conversation feels extra weird. Anyway, I digress. While out in the garden, I stepped on a Hawthorn branch, upon which sat a 2 inch thorn. This monstrosity (it was huge, take out a ruler and measure 2 inches - thats a big thorn) proceeded to impale a) the rubber sole of my Reef sandals b) the thick foam padding c) the leather bed and d) my flesh. This hurt.

As I cleaned my bloody instep the throbbing radiated out and affected the entire heel portion of my foot. I was pretty surprised how much damage this thorn did. I mean, my foot was still quite sore today. At my desk today, I considered this thorn and I thought about how nasty the crown of thorns must have been. That was real. It happened. I think often times we do not have a personal, physical connection with what happened to our Savior. We werent there, we didnt see the blood or hear the sounds of torture which occured on that day. But all that stuff we read and saw in that Mel Gibson movie actually happened and were actually felt by our beautiful friend and Lord, Jesus. Feeling that thorn gave me possibly a 0.00003% feeling of what He endured for us. Actually immeasurably less than that, because he endured the abscence of an infinitley intimate relationship with the Father, but that is a whole nother blog in itself. Basically, sin is ugly...and the punishment for it is devastating. Its just ridiculous the amount of love that was and is poured out on us by the Father. To go through that, just so He could be close to a continuously rebelious son like me...its astonishing.