There’s this space, between initial injury and total healing, where it still feels tender. That time where to look at the wound you’d see wholeness, but inside it’s not right.
Where caution is still required. To bump or touch it would cause pain; pain that frequently is unexpected. Because it’s not visible to the eye, there’s no constant reminder of hurt, you forget to be careful.
No longer are you cradling it, keeping it safe from the accidents of others. Rather you go about your normal life until the twinge of pain reminds you that all is not yet right.
Moments like this, soul moments like this, require us to turn again to Jesus. To ask ourselves how can this be healed more fully?
Sometimes there are infections to remove, people to address, hurts to forgive again. Usually, it just requires time and the soothing balm of the Holy Spirit.
In those days, hours even, where it can seem like you’ll never again be able to walk free or live with abandon…that’s when He comforts us and reminds us that all has been made new.
Just sometimes new can feel tender.
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This feels so relevant in my life right now! Thank you!
Blessings!
I want to say I’m glad, but this is an uncomfortable stage to be in. So I guess I’ll just respond with thanks and I’ll pray for you. 🙂
When I saw the post title my mind jumped to the “showing care and expressing softer emotions” side of the concept – being tender-hearted etc.
As I read through your post I was struck by the connection between the two seemingly disparate definitions – tenderness as a warm empathy versus tenderness as a state of sensitivity to that which may harm. Sensitivity can be both a necessity for being alive and an impediment to living fully free.
I found your conclusion to be beautiful – sometimes being made new (being reborn, made alive) feels a little tender.
Thanks for the post, I love “hearing” your voice!
I kind of had the same thought, but I figured that would be the primary response and I always like to buck the trend. 🙂
Well said.
Thanks!
” Usually, it just requires time and the soothing balm of the Holy Spirit.”
That’s a perfect line for so many situations.
And probably the most frustrating situation to be in. I’d rather have a solution and task. Waiting on the Lord feels so powerless, which is probably why we have to do it. It’s a reminder that we don’t HAVE to do anything, He’s got us.
This is so right where I am. A good reminder for me that to continue to protect that tenderness, that wound, is to live in the broken and not the healed.
Melissa, I felt like you were reading my mail as you wrote this. For me it isn’t newness that is creating that tender feeling but just moving through the pain of healing and allowing myself to be done and move on. Even though I am alright there are those moments, when least expected, that something hits in just the right (well actually wrong) way and there is a twinge of pain in my tenderness. Thanks for writing this!!
Hi Melissa–I came back here after a long absence (it’s not you, it’s me!)–and found that rare something that I knew I’d find: someone who can weave words beautifully together and still make sense (the latter part being the rarest!). Thanks for this and thanks for hitting the keys again.