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My daughter, then only four, rushed to me. Tears ran down her face as she held out her little hand. A splinter had buried deep into her finger. She wanted me to make it better, but I knew what had to be done. As she closely watched, I got a needle, sterilized it, and set about the terrible task.
Carefully I worked the needle into her finger to gouge out the small piece of wood. She cried out, "Daddy, please don't. It hurts." She never jerked her hand away, but her tears quickly became sobs. The splinter hurt her. The needle hurt her. And for all she could understand, her daddy was hurting her.
Finally the splinter loosened and I pulled it out. After cleaning the tiny wound, I applied a bright green band-aid. "That better?" I asked. She nodded and wiped away the tears. Within seconds she was laughing and running outside back to the land of splinters. I went to my bedroom...and cried.
Even the tiniest wrong is like that little splinter. Whether directed toward others, ourselves, or God, the wrongs we commit work their way deep into our spirit. Maybe we'll have them removed---as long as it doesn't hurt. Or perhaps we'll just ignore them---pretending everything's OK.
But like a splinter, wrongs create a wound...a spiritual wound. Absent a healing hand, the wound becomes infected. And that infection festers into a far more serious problem. Jesus spoke of this when He cautioned His followers not to be like so many around them.
Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused..." Matthew 13:13b-15a
We are called to follow, yet a callous heart cannot see the Way. We are called to encourage, yet a callous heart cannot hear the Truth. We are called to love, yet a callous heart cannot understand Life. How can we avoid having a callous heart? Only by the removal of that which has infected it.
When we rush to our Heavenly Father, He uses Christ, the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), as His surgical needle. With great skill and precision, He digs out the splinters buried deep in our lives-the wrongs we've committed...the pride, envy, hate, lust, arrogance...all the sin that's been festering.
And it hurts. We see who we've become, and it hurts. We hear the Word that cuts like a knife, and it hurts. We understand how we've treated our loving Father, and it hurts. As He pulls out each splinter, we cry out in pain. Our eyes fill with tears, but we never notice those in His.
As the procedure runs its course, we discover we are changing. We see, hear, and understand more clearly. And as our understanding increases, our hearts fill with compassion, mercy, and love as each day we become more like Jesus in every way (see Ephesians 4:15).
Rush to the One who will remove all the splinters in your life. See with His eyes...hear with His ears...understand with His heart...and know His great love for you!
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