day sixteen

"come, let us return to the Lord.
   he has torn us to pieces;
      now he will heal us.
   he has injured us;
      now he will bandage our wounds.
in just a short time he will restore us,
      so that we may live in his presence.
oh, that we might know the Lord!
      let us press on to know him.
   he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn
      or the coming of rains in early spring.”

~ hosea 6.1-3, new living translation


i donated blood today.  i hate needles, so i always found excuses for not giving before.  when i had surgery a couple years ago i was fine until they stuck me with the IV.  the tears were uncontrollable.  it didn't hurt.  it didn't necessarily scare me.  i wasn't even scared about the fact they were going to cut me open and take out one of my organs.  i just looked down and saw a needle in my arm and i lost it.  i could talk normally, but i just couldn't stop crying.  they ended up giving me some happy meds to calm me down.  i passed out so quickly that i don't even remember them rolling me out of the room and into surgery.  i have this vague memory of coming out of it just in time to see my surgeon asking me to count backwards from ten then going back under before i even began.

all that to say...it's a big deal that i gave blood today.  it was only my second time, so it's still pretty scary.  but i know that giving blood saves lives and i just don't see any excuse for any hospital to be without the blood they need to care for their patients.  this is a renewable resource that is simply too easy to fill.  i can't not give blood just because i'm afraid.  that would be like telling a child with leukemia that it's okay for them to die because i'm too scared of needles.  i'm not okay with that.

the pain of the finger prick and the discomfort of the needle is merely temporary.  surviving an illness, well, that's a lifetime. 

life's pains are temporary.  God's healing grace, well, that's everlasting.