Anatomy Lesson

Before the dawn on Monday morning, I headed out of my house to the gym. Loaded down with my purse, my gymbag, and my backpack for work, I could have used an extra pair of arms. This is a normal occurance in my life as I usually leave the day loaded down with everything I'll need since I rarely make it home before bedtime.

As I walked out my house door to my garage, I managed to squish my left middle finger in the door. I am somewhat accident prone, but I go through this routine daily, so I was surprised that this one day I managed to get my finger caught between the door and the doorframe. "Squish" sounds a lot nicer than how it felt. I immediately was brought to tears from the jolt of pain I felt soaring through my finger and quickly checked for blood. Nothing, thank goodness. But feeling my heartbeat through every throb was excruciating. How can such a small part of my body cause that much pain?

The realization of the importance of that third finger became imminently clear. Merely touching it was painful. Yet, I could barely do anything without touching it. Loading up my bags in my trunk..ouch. Getting dressed and undressed at the gym...ouch. Rolling down my window at the drive-thru at the bank...ouch. Typing on my computer keyboard...ouch. Of course, a smart person would have immediately put ice on it for 30 minutes to keep the swelling and bruising down, but not me. No blood...I'm moving on. After a couple of days, my finger and fingernail is still bruised, but the soreness is wearing off. But, that first day was a killer.

Normally I'm not a wimp and have a very high tolerance for pain but I guess the very focused location made it seem worse than it was. And, I realized how thankful I am for 10 working fingers.

It reminded me of the scripture in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 24-26...

"But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. "

...and how in the body of Christ, when one person suffers, we all suffer, yet we all rejoice when one part is honored. It's a reminder to me to be an encourager to those who are hurting and be the other "finger" to hold them up. And, when something happens to cause us to rejoice, remember to put those fingers and hands together and celebrate!