Several weeks ago, where I work a Canadian Goose began to show up who was injured, He (because I don’t know any better, could be she) had some how lost his right foot. He had the stem all the way down to where the foot would join.
Over several days I watched Hank, every time I would pass by or anyone would pass by he would begin to hiss. As I watched him I noticed that none of the other geese would come around him. He was all alone. Hank separated himself from the group.
I watched him struggle to stand, I watched him try to walk thinking that his foot was still there and getting frustrated that it was gone. But the thing that struck my heart the most was he was all alone. It grieved me that he had no one to share his burden. He is a creature of habit and continues to repeat the same action expecting a different result. Yet he lives just on the edges of the group. A distant relationship.
I realized in many ways we are all at times like Hank. we get hurt, maybe even suffer loss that can never heal to be like things were, that a potential that we one time possessed is permanently gone, but in our minds we have somehow latched on to it as being what we are valued for or measured against. Somehow, simply no longer whole.
We begin to isolate ourselves from others, first to protect ourselves, later to hide from the hurt. All the while somehow living in the edges and shadows of real life. We begin to hiss as others approach us, with fear that we will somehow be hurt again. All we know is what we are familiar with and that becomes our life. We somehow determine that the risk is not worth the reward.
Jesus waits to wrap himself around you at your point of injury and heal the brokenness in your life. He wants to take the loss you have suffered and turn it into gain, He wants to take the lost dreams and turn them into visions of hope and a future.
He alone understands the hurt and the fear of rejection and the life of an outcast. It’s your hurt, and it all by it’s self that He died for. Each pain you feel He knows and longs to give you rest.
Open yourself towards Jesus, let His spirit heal the hurt and pain your going through. And once you have been with Jesus, perhaps you will be of comfort to someone else going through similar things. To be injured and hurt is not a sin, but to remain in a state of injury is.
And if you could remember Hank in your prayers I would appreciate it. He needs family and love too.