«Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?» (Jeremiah 8:22).
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN «MENDING» AND «FIXING»?
I had never thought about it until the day I read an essay by Susan Cooke Kittredge titled «We All Need Mending.» In her work, this author suggests that when something that is damaged is fixed, at first glance there is no evidence that it was ever damaged or broken. It makes sense what she says. The car that has been crashed, the blender that has stopped working, once they have been fixed, at first glance show no evidence that they were ever damaged.
Something else occurs when we talk about «mending.» According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, this word means «to put into good shape or working order again, to patch up, to repair.» So, unlike the fixed items, the patched-up item still shows evidence of the damage that once existed.
What was the point Susan Cooke Kittredge wanted to highlight by stating that «mending» is not the same as «fixing»? That the mending doesn’t hide the story. As she herself says, the mending does not say, «Nothing has happened here.» It shows the traces that something bad happened. But it doesn’t stop there. In addition to preserving the history of the damage, it also points out that there is still a future. In other words, mending speaks of new beginnings; it says that no matter how torn the fabric was, it is still useful.
Is it possible to completely fix the wrong that we have done in the past, as if nothing had ever happened? No, because the marks remain. A broken relationship, a wounded heart, a sin committed . . . How we wish everything today were as if nothing had happened, but that is not possible; not only because there was a failure, a hurt, a sin, but also because there were consequences.
Ah, but life hasn’t stopped in the past! While it is true that we cannot say «nothing has happened here»—because we know the bad things we have done—we can also say that God can forgive us because «the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin» (1 John 1:7). So praise be to God—there is still a «balm in Gilead»!
And if that’s the way it is, why then keep living in the past? Why not thank God because the precious blood of His Son has given us forgiveness and redemption?
Thank You, heavenly Father, because the blood of Christ has cleansed my past, and because it has given me a new opportunity, a new future. What more could I want?
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2022
“GREAT IS OUR GOD!”
From: FERNANDO ZABALA
Colaboradores: Xiomara Perdomo & Angelica Cuate
