Devotions for the Rest of us #12

"Oh Precious is the Blood, that makes us white as snow...."

As Christians we sing about the blood of Jesus, we talk about how we are covered by His blood, we are amazed at how it was shed for us. But what do we really think about blood?

In health care we fear it. It has contaminates in it. If someone has a disease it is often carried by the blood or shows up by blood studies. It's very personal. We do everything we can to make sure that no one's blood touches us, because of all the things that can be bad.

It's donated, "Give life!" Because man can't make an exact copy, we can't just replace the real thing. In fact, you can donate your own blood before you have surgery if you need. But donating blood is a very precious thing and something that everyone who is eligible should do.

So what got me thinking this way? The other day I had a patient that we had to emergently take to the OR, and I went into the room with him. When all was said and done, and I returned to the ER, I had a lot of paperwork to write about this case. I had carried monitors and other equipment back from the OR and it had blood on it. Some was transferred to my arms as I carried things. Later, when it was pointed out to me, I felt quite a bit of emotion as I washed it off. As I washed this patient off of me. This patient.

I only had a short time to care for this patient, and his family will never know the effect of how his life touched mine. I'll never know what he was like in his life but I learned much from him. Hopefully the next time I see someone like him I can be quicker, better. But also the intersection of our lives. We sometimes only see them for minutes, yet we are so touched by their love, their pain, their emotions.

So at the end of it all, I was touched by him. And it was very personal. And he will always be part of me, no matter how much I clean.

You see, part of his life was on me, and I had to wash it off. Yet, I need the blood of our wonderful Lord on me to be clean. His life. Not to be washed off, but to wash me. Wonderful, amazing blood. Life.

Devotions for the Rest of Us #11

I've recently had several occasions to consider what our freedom in Christ means. It amazes me how so many of us can become entrapped in what we think we must do and what we think is wrong. I suspect you can build a case for most anything with scripture, because we seem to do it on a regular basis. We trap each other, then judge each other, forgetting our own entanglements.

Our son and his wife have a puppy that frequently gets to come over and play here. They live in an apartment and Roman must be on a leash there. It's amazing to watch him when he comes here, there are three acres that he can run over, and as long as he responds to our calls, he gets to run free. He starts very hesitant, but then as he realizes that he can go, he bounds off, smelling the trees, the grass, and follows our dogs everywhere.

Is that how we are? When we are first brought into the kingdom, we first often see ourselves as being in this place of "you can't do this, you can't do that." We often fail to see it's not what we can't do, but what we can.

The old desires fall away. We aren't bound by things, we change our desires. So if you choose to show your faith in a certain way, by your dress, by your stickers on your car, it's fine. But am I less of a believer if I don't? I think not, I think that we are all on this journey, and the paths may vary, but He leads us all the way.

What I see is that where I am weak, will you come beside me? Where I am strong, I'll be beside you. Not to judge you, but to lift you up, to encourage you. And because some things are easy for you and not for me, be understanding. Math is a huge struggle, but history comes alive for me. For you, some things are easy to see, for me not. Neither of us is wrong, but He made us all different. Yet images of Him.

And where I want to live is at the foot of the cross. Because there we are all the same.