The external metal pins protruding from Rick’s lower leg highlighted the inflamed and infected looking skin surrounding them. While riding his bicycle, he suffered some nasty fractures when colliding with a car. The pins were necessary to save his lower leg. Home health nurses were called in to visit Rick when it became evident his bones were not fusing together, even with the pins holding them in place.
As his nurse case manager, the orders from the physician were to clean/medicate the areas surrounding the pins 2 times a week and instruct Rick how to do the procedure on the days I was not visiting. Another important part of my visit was to assess Rick’s nutritional intake, monitor his prescribed activity restrictions and level of comfort, as well as encourage him to stop smoking.
Bones usually heal when the blood feeding them is healthy. Nourishing blood contains the right nutritional components, as well as oxygen. Protein builds new cells and Rick’s diet was heavy on the side of empty carbohydrates. Smoking cigarettes robbed Rick’s blood of the oxygen necessary to heal his bones. The depression engulfing Rick also hindered his healing and distanced him from loving relationships.
I would like to tell you Rick worked hard on the issues but I was sadly grieved when he chose the path of non-compliance to the instructions given. Rick was eventually referred to hyperbaric treatments to help force oxygen into his blood. I never learned if this treatment was successful for Rick.
The blood of an unborn child in the womb never mixes with the blood of the mother. Due to genetics, we come into this world with blood and spirit less than perfect. Then the challenges of life happen further depleting the life force in our blood if one doesn’t know the secret of life.
Because God was sadly grieved by our human condition, he provided a loving solution to the problem of wounds. This solution could have helped Rick heal from the PTSD he incurred as a soldier in Vietnam. Often, when heart wounds are healed, it becomes easier to work on physical and relational issues.
Jesus blood was pure, healthy and sinless because he was divinely conceived and his blood never mixed with his mother Mary. As a child, I asked God to forgive my mistakes because Jesus loves me. As an adult, my understanding of the magnitude of his loving blood sacrifice is just beginning to dawn on me. The power of his sinless blood is also for the healing of physical, mental and spiritual wounds.
It’s wonderful to be assured of eternity in heaven because of God’s love and Jesus sacrifice. It’s just as wonderful to observe and experience miracles of wounds healed, relationships restored, physical body’s strengthened and mind’s set free from negative influences because of that same blood sacrifice. I’m working on the following suggestion, believing-
So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body. (Message Bible Hebrews 10:19-21)