Avalon Chronicles #80: "Wounds"
Allen B. Clark
www.combatfaith.com
www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
allenbclark@aol.com
This past Saturday the day before Easter Linda and I went to the theater to see "The Case For Christ," a most compelling movie of an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune newspaper. His wife had accepted Christ as Savior and he began an investigation to disprove the narrative of Jesus. His journey toward belief took him to an interview with a researcher, who recounted with intimate and detailed description the wounds of Christ at His crucifixion. All the wounds were depicted, sometimes with illustration; the crown of thorns, the scourging on the path to Golgotha, the spikes through the feet and wrists, the agonized breathing, and the final spearing into the chest drawing blood and water after the death. Jesus was a human being sent by God to be an example of behavior, but, more importantly, to be the way for us to eventually escape the bonds of earth through eternal life in Heaven. Eventually the reporter was convinced and accepted Jesus as his own Savior. Rarely do I tear in films, but I did in this one!
On June 17, 2017 I will celebrate my FIFTIETH "Alive Day," the fiftieth anniversary of my wounding in Vietnam on June 17, 1967. Rarely does a day go by that I am not triggered in some way with the memories of that day, three days from my 25th birthday. My wounds (as many of you already know) were from a mortar shell landing close behind me and ripping my left leg off below the knee completely and instantly. The right leg, broken in five places, was amputated ten days later. My gracious and loving God did not suffer me to feel the pain originally. I was awake until the medical evacuation helicopter delivered me to the MASH in Pleiku some unknown number of hours later. There were six weeks of morphine every three hours and twenty total surgeries even up into forty years later.
My Lord received no relief from His wounds. His wounds served a purpose for all of us that many do not fathom. The sacrifice on that cross meant that those of us that grasp its significance and believe he was Who He said He was, will have eternal life, when the wounds physically and emotionally and spiritually have taken their toll in our lives. In one of my daily readings reference is made to Psalm 34. In this world strategically with the threat again of possible nuclear attack, terrorist attacks even in our smaller cities, bombings, rampant crime, and the deterioration of morality and integrity, we are beset and besieged with our own personal tactical issues of failing marriages, deteriorating health, failing businesses, and inadequate provision financially. These will not end. It is reality therapy. All we can do is confess our sins, forgive all others, keep in constant prayer and intercession, and be faithful to our beliefs. We must go on with our lives, but love, love, love as Jesus taught us.
A friend of Linda's spoke of a friend who was told she had two months to live. Her friends began the typical responses of regret and sadness. She very dynamically and joyfully proclaimed, "Are you serious? I see Jesus in Heaven in two months!" Who will you see upon your demise?
