Healing Comes in Layers

I recently had surgery to remove a large cyst. Of course while the surgeon was doing it, it didn't hurt at all. But afterwards the pain was awful.

As I was lying there and he was operating, the surgeon told me that he would be leaving the wound open. It would be a hole of about 3cm x 4cm and it would heal within a few weeks, he told me. He explained that I could shower normally and it would be fine.

I asked him why he was not going to stitch and close it, and he explained that if left open it would heal quicker and without infection.

If left open it would heal quicker and without infectionI was horrified at the thought of an open gaping hole, and could not imagine how it was going to heal and not get infected. In fact I obsessed about it and it took me a good few days before I could even look at it.

Yes it was ugly, as he said: a gaping hole.

I carried out his instructions just to keep it clean and cover it with gauze. And he was totally right...it did not get infected. I watched it over the weeks, slowly heal, bit by bit, layer by layer. I became fascinated at how the human body could heal itself. Slowly, at its own rate, without any intervention whatsoever.

It made me think about how we heal other kinds of wounds - emotional as well as physical. If we try to put a band aid on them or glue them up or stitch them too soon, they have a nasty tendency to get infected and ooze out again. They will "remind us" that they are still there and give us grief.

Yet if we heal those emotional wounds, slowly, layer by layer, in the body's own time and pace, and we trust in the body that our Creator has given us - the body that knows how to do its work, we will heal totally and fully and the wound will be closed.

Of course the deeper the wound, the longer it takes to close, but believe me - it will.