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The other day I noticed a small wound on my son's leg. It was turning the shade of red that looks like it’s on the verge of getting infected.

I gently held his leg down and started to pick at the wound to clean it out. He did not like it. Actually, that might be an understatement.

He was quite upset his Mama was picking on the ouchie on his leg. Boy, did he let me know it. He started to cry loudly, big fat tears running down his cheeks. I picked him up, gave him his favorite blanket, and rocked him calmly until he settled down.

He’s still so little he doesn’t quite understand that in order for a wound to heal you have to take special care of it. That’s what I wanted for my child.

Healing. Complete healing.

But in order to heal you have to dig out the things that don’t belong, then you must clean it out and bind it up. It’s not a fun process to do so. It’s painful and it hurts.

But we can never fully heal until we tend to our wounds the correct way.

Sure, you could just put a band-aide on it but that doesn’t really correct the issue. It hides the wound and masks the pain for another day; when it manifests in unpredictable ways. It doesn’t address the root of the issue, which is the wound itself.

I have found this to be the case in my grief.

There are things I’ve had to do, after losing my husband, that literally feel like I’m picking at an open wound. They’re the things that hurt but they are absolutely necessary for me to push through the pain to obtain the healing. It can be something as big as knowing when to take his clothes out of the closet. It can be something as small as going to the grocery store alone when you used to go together.

None of it is easy. All of it hurts.

But in doing so you’re tending to your wound.

You’re doing the things that are painful but give you strength and ensure healing for your soul. Sure, it would be much easier to put a “band-aide” on the wound and save the cleansing for another day. It’s not easy to tackle the things that cause you pain. It’s not easy to live life without the one you love. But what Gods wants, more than anything, is to heal your wound.

Yes, there will always, always, be a scar that remains, but it can become a scar that’s healed properly. And when others see your scar you can boldly tell them about a wound that was so deep and so vast. Yet, a loving God swooped in and healed you from the inside out.

It’s what He longs to do.

The very next day I checked my sons leg. The wound once so large had shrunk to half the size. The bright red had long faded to his normal skin color. Gone with it was the wincing sting of pain he had displayed any time my hand was near it. The process wasn’t fun for him to walk through. There were many things he didn’t understand regarding the “whys” of the pain he had to endure. But the end result was just as I had planned. The wound subsided and my boy healed and whole.

Just what our God longs for you. If you’ll only let Him.

Dear Jesus, thank You that You long to heal every part of me that is wounded. I give You every part of me and surrender the healing process to You. I know that only You can make me whole again. Amen