Salt in an Open Wound

I hate ulcers.  I don't know anyone who likes them.  They pop up after I've indulged in one too many delicious coffees.  I guess the acid does it?

Ulcers seem to develop right on the tip of my tongue or a place inside my cheek.  The wrong stupid spot if you ask me.  I have trouble talking, chewing, ugh.  The pain radiates.

People tell me : "drink with warm salt water."  Are you kidding me? That's disgusting.  I hate doing that.  But the ulcer was becoming monstrous and I couldn't take the pain anymore. So I decided to do it.  I figured if salt can take down an innocent slug, then it can slay my bothersome ulcer.

I put some salt on a plate and stuck my tongue down right on it.  Nothing at first then, OW!  I rinsed with salt water. To my surprise, the little white ulcer turned clear.  The pain deadened a bit.  I guess it is the same premise as the slug.  It takes a while, then BAM.  It sure hurts.

Salt in an open wound is an odd way to deal with matters.  For one thing, it hurts like the dickens and secondly, did I mention it's painful?  I guess that is how the cliche term came about.  It's painful when something is trying to heal and their is a resistance to it.

This reminded me of a passage I pondered earlier.  I started thinking of Luke 19:41 where Christ is outside Jerusalem and weeps over it.  Then, in Luke 13:34, He expresses His sorrow for Jerusalem: "How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" How John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.," is juxtaposed with verse 19 of the same passage: "Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."  People just won't accept God's free gift of grace.

I can imagine a potential dialogue between these people and God:

God

I made a way for you.  Come home.  

Us

Nope. I'm good. 

God

My Son was brutally murdered for you to have this.  

Us

So? 

[Then we walk off.]

Ouch!  I'd say that is salt in an open wound.  Salt in the very bloody hole in Christ's wrist from the nail that crucified Him.

What's our problem anyway?  Why do we have such resistance to loving God and accepting His gift?  There are a million reasons for why we don't accept Him, His promises and/or struggle to believe the love and hope He offers. An entire list just downloaded in my brain: pride, anger, strife, disappointment, arrogance, you name it.  But, when it boils down to it: it's salt in the wound.

I can envision someone of the physical characteristics of Christ sitting outside of the city, maybe on a mule, maybe underneath a huge tree and there before Him is the glistening skyline of Jerusalem.  Maybe the day is pretty.  But the weather inside this man's heart?  Torment.  I can imagine Him saying: "How much I want them to come.  I love them.  But they won't come."

Boy, my heart breaks for someone in this situation.  Unrequited love is what the British call it.  Love that is towed out there on the line and not only not returned, but intensely rejected.

Not to mention all the back talk and wicked things people were saying about Christ.  I wonder if that bothered Him.  It would sure bother the heck out of me.  Obviously, He has an incredibly different way of dealing with things.  Still.  I wonder if it hurt him.

So, friends.  Let us not pour salt in to the wound that was meant to save our lives.  Let us love the hands that bled for us.  Let us love the One who sent His Son to pay the price.  Let us love our good God for loving us so much to save this evil world, our wicked hearts so that we would come home.

Let us love our God and say thank you.




© 2013 Candice Irion.  All Rights Reserved.