I told you in my last post how I love classic hymns, and how sometimes one line from one hymn gets to me.

Last Sunday, it was this one…

Jesus paid it all

All to Him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow.

And that’s the line that did it… that crimson stain line.

Sin had left a crimson stain…

I pondered on those lyrics all day.

Sometimes we’re left all stained up by our own stupid choices.

And sometimes… our stains are the result of something horribly sinful that someone else did to us that left us that left us bruised and broken and suffering from deep, painful wounds that never seem to heal.

Sometimes we forget we’re wounded. Life is going well… we’re feeling good and happy… then someone we love innocently says some thoughtless words and we fall apart as if they’re the ones that inflicted tremendous pain.

Their seemingly harmless words feel like a sledgehammer to a broken bone that had just begun to heal, and they’re left confused, wondering what exactly it was that they said…

~~~~~

I’ve learned a little about closed-head injuries since I’ve worked at Truman.

From what I understand they take forever to heal, because unlike other parts of the body that can be ‘worked’ in physical therapy, bringing healing blood to the injured parts, there isn’t really a muscle you can ‘work’ to get blood to the brain. It just sits there, closed in. Sometimes it takes years for the swelling to go down.

I think our emotional injuries can be like that…so slow to heal, because its just so difficult to bring healing to those wounded parts so deep on the inside.

And it takes years for the swelling to go down.

~~~~~

And then I heard that line Sunday morning…

Sin had left a crimson stain

And the next line…

He washed it white as snow.

And suddenly I knew that Jesus wants to heal those sins, too…. Those done to you, though no fault of your own, by someone else.

Jesus died to wash those sins white as snow too.

And that one line from that one hymn brought a little healing to some wounds that were festering deep inside of me… wounds I had forgotten about, or tried to, until someone I loved said some seemingly harmless words, and I fell apart. (*And I’m sorry. You know who you are.)

Jesus paid it ALL.

Even that one.