Wounds that heal superficially need deeper healing.

Sometimes the wound needs to be reopened to heal completely.

A friend, a nurse, helped a patient with a compound-fracture wound

that had become infected after the scar had formed.

She described how she cleaned the reopened wound daily.

Gradually, the festering cleared up and

the new healthy layers grew and sealed the wound.

My friend’s ministries are a good metaphor for treating

psychological pain and emotional wounds.

These wounds develop

a scab, then a scar, but may not heal deeply.

Some time later, sometimes more than once,

these wounds need to be reopened.

This reopening is very painful, but creates an

environment for deeper healing.

I have thought of this metaphor many times and experienced the reopening of emotional wounds that needed to heal more deeply. At transition times in our lives, body and spirit call out for a more intense exposure of our pain. Once the pain has been faced, we can grow and thrive again.

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