Hannah and I tend to look at how far Nathan has come. When I sent her a text message about his walking with crutches, she replied that she wishes she were around to see it. (When she last saw him, he was wheelchair-bound.) She texted: "Not long ago his sitting up was an amazing feat!"
Nathan, on the other hand, tends to focus on how far he has to go. He walks with two crutches--slowly, and with difficulty. (Doctors say that three things heal particularly slowly: bones, nerves, and emotions. Nathan's injuries are to bones and nerves.) And he has months of oral surgery ahead. While he rarely complains, he did express frustration the other day. Said he: "This is taking forever!"
Both points of view are realistic. He is making headway, but it is a slow process...and difficult.
Nathan's accident, and his recovery, have become, for me, a metaphor with respect to the shape of the world in which we live and the work to which we are called. Things are quickly and easily loused up, or even destroyed, but they are only slowly and painfully restored or set right.
Adam's and Eve's Fall into sin took but a moment, but the long-term effects were devastating, and reversing them is a slow process, and difficult. It is not as easy to straighten things out as it is to louse them up. Whether it is bodies that are broken, or our environment that is polluted or destroyed, or relationships that are ruptured, or injustices that are perpetuated, we should not be surprised that restoring things is an uphill battle, a painfully slow process. That is reality; and, as our young friends are fond of saying, we've gotta "deal with it." We must not give way to despair, but rather keep on laboring at setting things right, energized by the hope that there is a Day coming when things will, at last, be set right.
"The creation waits in eager expectation...for the creation was subjected to frustration... The whole creation has been groaning... Not only so, but we ourselves...groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.... Who hopes for what he already has? But...we wait for it patiently." (Romans 8:19-25, New International Version)
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I know exactly how you feel. My recovery is also taking forever. But I am reminded by so many on how much progress I am making. It is just a lot slower than I would want. My timing is not the Lord's timing, as I keep reminding myself. He has a purpose in all of this -- I am not sure what it is yet -- and I pray that HE will be glorified through our experiences!
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