Recently, I needed to have blood work done, and was dreading it, as always. So, I am at the lab - getting stuck with needles up and down both arms and hands. A second lab tech was called over to attempt it…so now we are up to 5 unsuccessful tries. It is painful and unpleasant…and I am starting to lose patience… These lab techs are young girls…they look like they are barely out of high school…and barely know what they’re doing. I suddenly felt the urge to snap...Do you think we could possibly get someone here who actually knows how to draw blood??” At that point, I was ready to just get up and walk out. Then I remembered the cross around my neck. I choose to wear a cross – as an outward yet silent witness for my Lord and my God…my Savior, Jesus… And I suddenly thought about what Kathy said, a while back, and her words have stuck with me…about how if we choose to wear a cross, we need to be particularly careful about how we conduct ourselves in front of others…or else we make a liar out of Him, in other people’s eyes…and when people see that cross…oh YES, they are watching us intently. Even without the cross I am wearing…of course it would have been wrong to lose my temper. They were trying their best…I could see how nervous they were…and I started feeling bad for them…imagining how nervous I would be, in their shoes. It’s nobodys fault that I have difficult veins…and I may have been somewhat dehydrated that morning, making the situation even worse. (I will make sure to drink LOTS of water several hours before my next blood draw!) They finally did call a third tech over - who drew my blood on her first try! :) I have noticed peoples’ eyes drawn to my cross. As you can see – it is a very plain cross – nothing fancy about it…nothing about it that would catch anyone’s eye. And yet it DOES…a lot. That, in itself…I find amazing. Perhaps they want nothing to do with His cross…and yet they are still somehow drawn to it. Perhaps it should not puzzle me…for His cross was a thing of agony and ugliness…yet at the same time…it was a thing of profound love and unspeakable beauty…where God demonstrated His love for us in a tangible, unmistakable way…through the gift of salvation freely offered to all those made in His image…if we only receive His Son…and the blood that poured from His wounded, precious body…when He purchased us for Himself, that day…paid for with His own blood… As painful as it is to have needles poked into my hands…God reminded me of the incredible agony that Jesus experienced when He had spikes driven into His hands with hammers…among all the other physical, emotional and spiritual torment He suffered for us that day…out of the depths of His profound love for us, and His tremendous desire for each one of us to be joined with Him for Eternity...I am so very much in LOVE with...and in AWE of...this magnificent God of ours... For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 16:10:57 +0000
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