Daily Manna · Day 48 · February 17
The Heart Doctor
“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”
A woman drives four blocks out of her way every day so that she does not have to pass a certain street. She has been doing it for nine months, and nobody in her life knows. If anyone asked, she would say she is doing fine, and on most days she almost believes it.
We are all well practised at this. We tell people the anniversary has passed, as if grief kept to a calendar. We say "fine" so smoothly that it comes out before we have decided to say it. Then a song, a smell, or somebody's handwriting on an old envelope catches us, and the floor gives way. Afterwards we feel embarrassed instead of comforted, and that is a sad thing in itself.
The psalm puts this promise in company we might not expect: "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." The very next line says, "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names." Two verses after that comes "he casteth the wicked down to the ground." So this is not a soft, sentimental passage. The One who binds the wound is the same One who counts the stars and brings down the wicked. "Bindeth up" is a word about the body. It means wrapping an injury the way you would bind up a broken arm, and that kind of healing takes time and can hurt while it happens.
Lord, we have been saying "fine" to the people who asked, and to You. We have treated the date on the calendar as proof that we are healed. Here is the truth: it still hurts, and this is exactly where. We are not asking You to call it small, and You never have. Bind it up as slowly as it needs. Give us the courage to let one person see the wound this week, because a wound kept hidden under a sleeve never gets bandaged. Thank You that You count the stars and still stoop down to bind up our wounds. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 48 is What Jabez Asked (1 Chronicles 4:10).