Meaning in Pain

Executioners of that day drove their spikes through the wrist, right thru the carpal tunnel that houses finger-controlling tendons and the median nerve. It is impossible to force a spike there without crippling the hand into a claw shape. Jesus had no anesthetic. He allowed those hands to be marred and crippled and destroyed. (In His Image, Dr Paul Brand)

It is good to be able to type again, no matter how briefly it may be. Heck, it is good just to feel the keys on the (newly-installed, 2nd-hand) ergonomic keyboard. After weeks of being misdiagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome/ arthritis/ fibromyalgia; I am glad to be back in action, thanks to my mother who took really good care of me. She should consider a career in nursing.

Pain is a terrible thing. Or it can be a wondrous gift, depending on which perspective one happens to be swaying towards. On one hand, it is a situation no one wants to encounter but which everyone does, in one form or another. No one is exempt. Pain visits your body, emotions and mental faculties, gnawing where it matters and leaving a trail of vivid memories.

But is there meaning to pain?

Ah... the age-old medical question! In physical terms, pain is an in-built human mechanism that naturally triggers a warning when something goes wrong with our bodies, or when certain areas need attention. Talk to a leprosy patient and he will tell you how he wished he could feel pain. I know because I shook the right stump (what had remained of his hand) of one such person and saw the shocked reaction on his face. I guess he didn't see that gesture coming at him. He had lost his left arm, some parts of his face and his right palm because he was unable to feel pain.

In fact, pain is a gift that not many people appreciate nor ask for. Many would seek explanation for medical issues associated with it, and the lucky ones will find a diagnosis. Others live with it. And sometimes it goes on for years. Ask me why a loving God would allow His children to suffer and I definitely would not be able to answer satisfactorily. But note: It is exactly the love that is God that allowed the cruelty of the cross - raw, non-edited, on-your-face. It is something the natural mind finds hard to comprehend. It is grasped by faith, a total reliance and belief on a Person and on that Person alone.