''Don't you think rescuing this poor creature from such a fate was a risky proposition at best?” Thomas' eyes narrowed. ''She's not going to be worth all of your time and effort in the end.”
“I don't look upon any animal for what it will be worth,” Man replied, ''Even the most broken ones are valuable just because they have been given life.” He leaned forward eagerly, eyes gleaming with the joy of his favorite topic.
The blonde man shook his head. ''Some of them would take years to recover. Much time and even more money. That is, if they heal at all.''
''But they heal, Thomas! Just this morning I thought about how many wrecked lives have come through here and left with health restored. You have to consider more than the healing of a body, though. There is the restoring of a mind and the mending of a broken heart." He gestured toward Miniamin. “Unless all parts of her being are taken into account, she won't be whole, and the chance for healthy life is slim indeed.''
“Mind? Heart? How can anyone know what an animal thinks or feels? If this how it has to be, we'd better find you a talking dog. Or maybe a cat that's telepathic? I can't see any other way to know them in the way you're saying you do.”
Leaning back in his chair, Thomas folded his arms across his chest triumphantly. He was certain that this strange, extravagant fellow had backed himself into a corner with no room for escape.
''There is a way.”
“I'd love to know,” Thomas replied, barely concealing a smile.
Man rose to his feet and turned his back to his guests. Without a word, he began to unbutton his brown shirt. James had been sitting quietly, but stood up with a scrape of his chair, eyes bright with tears that threatened to spill over at any moment. Thomas glanced at him uncomprehendingly and turned back just as Man's shirt fell from his shoulders to the floor.
Mottled sunshine reflected upon his bare back, confusing Thomas' vision for a split second. As his eyes focused, he realized that the healer's skin was not the warm brown he would have expected. Grayish white furrows and angry welts zigzagged at random across the surface, and every square inch from shoulders to waist was covered with the hatch marks of smaller but significant wounds. In another instant, Thomas realized that he was not looking at fresh injuries, but extensive scar tissue. Quite a calamity. Not a burn...but what? His mind reached back to other times and places, then reeled with the knowledge it retrieved.
The trap...the terrible barbed trap created for torturous death had claimed a human victim. He gasped with the realization. Man turned his face to Thomas, gentle brown eyes meeting startled blue.
In shocked silence, Thomas fumbled for words.
''A...a terrible accident. How awful for you.”
“No accident.”
“Pardon?''
“I'm saying, it was not an accident. ''
“You mean.. .?''
“Yes. I allowed it to happen.”
“But why?”
Man's face softened as he looked toward Miniamin. ''For her and for many others.”
Lifting an intent gaze to the eyes of the man seated across the table, he continued, ''My friend, I understand them because I have been as they are now. At one time, when the creatures recognized me at all, it was from a distance. But now...'' he paused, his voice breaking, ''now, when I come to them, it is with these scars upon my body. When they are angry, hurting, afraid, when their spirits are broken from suffering abuse...I
understand! And now, when I come, I am able to bring comfort and hope, to offer healing and peace because...I understand.”
In many religions, there are people who embrace suffering for the purpose of obtaining an answer to prayer. There are others who are willing to endure it to gain a feeling of spiritual closeness or intimacy to a chosen object of worship. But, at no other place and time than in Jesus Christ has the healing of the wounded been accomplished through the wounding of the Healer. This is God's love story, written to us and for us.
By sending His very own Son, who was part and parcel of Himself (Jesus said, he who has seen Me has seen the Father), God initiated the contact with man through which
healing could come. He took on flesh like ours and suffered rejection, abuse, and torment as a man. His actions speak volumes of his desire to reach out to us, not with commands, prescriptions and codes of conduct, but with care, relationship, and love.
Now, when we struggle with the pain of life, may it be with the understanding that God is not fault finding, judgmental or harsh. He is for us! His commandments are not prerequisites to obtaining His love. This, He has granted already. The things he asks of us become an easy and natural outgrowth of a heart that is experiencing His healing power in great and small ways.
As we speak of struggle, we can't escape the tough questions that stand like boulders in the middle of our path toward healing. We push against them, only to find that they just won't budge.
Perhaps they don't have to.