A Holy Woundedness

 

God took one of Earthling’s ribs and closed up its place with flesh. (Genesis 2:21)

 

Relationships are not all chocolate rivers and pony rides.  If you have spent any time around other featherless bipeds, you know this to be true.  Other people can be amazing.  Other people can be annoying.  Other people can be hurtful or helpful or ambivalent.  In Genesis 2, after crafting the first earthling (that is what adam means – a dust/earth being), God recognizes and realizes this being needs a companion, helper, friend, and someone to share life with.  Initially, God makes all the animals as potential friends.  God makes the giraffe, but this animal is too tall for face-to-face conversation.  God makes the porcupine, but the hugs are too painful.  God makes a dog, and everything is perfect, and they live happily ever after.  Even the dog couldn’t quite meet all the humans’ emotional/relational/spiritual/intellectual needs.  So, the first human falls asleep, God performs surgery, removing a rib, creating a wound.  I don’t need to know if this actually happened to know it is true.  Our words wound one another.  Our actions hurt worse than sticks and stones.  We dehumanize one another and turn to violence as the only means too often. 

 

Is there a wound from this last year you are carrying?  Is there a pain that is left unprocessed?  Yesterday, I mentioned open memories.  These are the ones that, when I tell the story of being embarrassed at calling someone the wrong name ten years ago, I still feel my face flood with warmth hot enough to roast a marshmallow.   For you, it could be encountering a situation that is far more traumatic, such as discrimination, violence, hate, or abuse.  Those open memories remind us there are unholy ghosts that haunt us even as Halloween passed last week.  Please note that open memories can still cause us joy too.  Ever tell a story to someone that you cannot finish because you are still laughing so hard your stomach aches?  Both can be true.

 

Today, I invite us to think about an open memory that still hurts ~ could cause your mind to spin so fast you get dizzy, or your heart to race, sounding like the horses at the Kentucky Derby, or making your stomach a bit nauseous.  If you are starting to feel that pain, I want to invite you to place one hand on your heart and another on your belly.  Now take a deep breath and slowly exhale.  Breathe in the breath of God whose love never lets you go and exhale the pain.  Breathe in the promise that you are safe right now and exhale the thoughts that this memory doesn’t need to have the last word.  Ruptures in relationships happen (that is Genesis 3).  Systems are built often on the backs of those we refuse to see: immigrants and those clinging to the last rung of the socio-economic ladder with their fingernails.  Breathe and be.  Trusting that God hears/knows the pain.  This is the truth of Exodus 2:24: God heard their groaning, and God remembered the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The word “heard” is not distant or disconnected, but God felt the pain deep in God’s very being.  It is good to point out that God’s plan to resolve this groaning was to send Moses, a wanted criminal who had killed an Egyptian guard in chapter 1 who was beating up/bullying a fellow Israelite.  Because violence begets violence, Moses kills the guard, buries the body in the sand, and tries to cover his tracks, but Pharaoh hears about it and puts up “Wanted for murder” posters on the pyramids. 

 

We all have wounds; some just cover them better.  Today, ponder gently one moment from this year that has not been resolved or reconciled; share that with God.  If you want to talk more about this, reach out to me.  May God’s healing love wrap around you this day.  Amen.