Tomorrow will be our last day of Advent but there is one more “Advent Adventure” to share today.
Our time in the village of San Antonio del Monte passed quickly. Judy and I taught literacy classes, and we continued to learn more of the Tzeltal language and culture. But one of our other responsibilities was to meet medical needs. We had learned to give injections and kept some basic first-aid supplies on hand: aspirin, Band-Aids, and disinfectants. We even had a small vial of anesthetic for an emergency.
One afternoon, a man from a nearby town limped up to our door. He had been clearing his field with his machete when the knife slipped and gashed his right shin. A cloth tied around the wound on his leg was now saturated with blood. When he removed the homemade bandage, the depth of the wound convinced us that no Band-Aid would be sufficient. We would have to suture, using plain cotton thread and a needle.
We washed the wound of grass and dirt, and then we applied anesthetic. Neither of us had ever practiced suturing, but our medical book suggested using a granny knot “if the wound was under tension.” We decided the wound was under tension…ours! But suturing this man’s skin was like trying to puncture leather with an awl. We put in just enough stitches to pull the two edges of the wound together, said a prayer, and hoped for the best.
In John 5, Jesus met a lame man lying by the pool at Bethesda. Jesus had no first-aid kit, but he knew the man had been lying there for a long time. Perhaps Jesus had seen him there year after year when he came to Jerusalem for Passover. He asked the man, “Do you want to get well?” It seems like a strange question, but perhaps the man was so used to being lame that he no longer had hope.
As you face a new year, are you anxious about what the future holds? Jesus asks you too, “Do you want to get well?” He alone offers us hope.
