"I'm trying to say that what you say hurts me!" The husband was distraught, head down, pain long-buried. His wife barely heard the words.
"You?!" she replied. "How can you be hurt? You're big and strong and you're in charge. Nothing hurts you!"
The statement was self-fulfilling. Trying to meet the claim, the man visibly receded, pain buried deeper yet. No doubt he tried to be invincible -- for his wife, no less. But he wasn't, and isn't.
Then I remembered the cross. The greatest, the most loving, the one who could be more "in charge" than any who ever lived: this man suffered scoffing and scorn, hatred, betrayal and abandonment. He hurt, he felt the pain. And He asked God to forgive us for "we do not know what we do."
I wondered if the wife knew what she did, and if the husband would find the grace to bear gladly, for the good of his wife and home.
~ Prayers of a Prairie Pastor
No comments:
Post a Comment