“So” I said. “I’m planning to come home on public transportation on Friday. That will be fine, won’t it?”
There was a pause on the other end of the phone. I was speaking with Vanessa from the surgeon’s office. She was giving me instructions for the minor out-patient surgery I was having – specifically an incision to remove tissue from my right thigh.
She responded carefully. “I think it would be better to have someone pick you up. You don’t want anyone to jostle the wound.”
Okay then. I was underestimating this surgery; minimizing the impact perhaps.
Since that conversation I’ve used the phrase several times; in telling my family that my husband would pick me up, in talking to my sister-in-law, in relaying the conversation to a friend.
The phrase has made its home – because these are wise words.
“Don’t jostle the wound!” Fresh wounds need care and rest, they need us to pay attention, listen to instructions, care for them as prescribed. Fresh wounds of the body and the heart and soul.
How often when my heart feels wounded have I longed to cry “Please! Don’t jostle my wound!” Or how often have I wanted others to cry out for me “Don’t jostle her wound – care for her, love her, nourish her.”
And the wound will heal but often we need that advice, the warning, the encouragement not to jostle the wound. For no matter how we play at being fine, there are times when we are the walking wounded. We are fragile and finite, holding hearts and souls easily wounded, easily bruised.
And so sometimes we need others to say “Don’t jostle the wound! Make sure you don’t jostle the wound!”
Today is the first day I’ve stepped out of the house without a bandage on my wound. My hand goes protectively toward my thigh as I wait for the bus, continues to guard it as I step onto the subway. I’m now able to care for myself – I don’t need protection. But I still don’t want anyone to jostle the wound.
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Marilyn R. Gardner 
Wonderful analogy, Marilyn. Thanks.
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Thanks so much for reading Jan!
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Marilyn, Psalm 147:3 comes to mind: “He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.” And, Isaiah 53:5 “But he was wounded for our transgressions…” It is comforting to know that we have no wound that He does not feel nor one so deep that He cannot heal. He has been there. He knows and He cares.
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Yes! And comfort that goes deep into the soul. Thank you.
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very thought-provoking Marilyn. Sx
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Beautiful. Thank you for this…a gift that I needed:) Somehow it let me pinpoint that today I feel wounded and it is ok to be that way and it is ok to ask those around me to be gentle. Somehow this gave me permission to feel what is in my heart…what I suspected but didn’t stop to feel.
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Ah Karen – thank you for sharing this and I so get this giving yourself permission piece. It’s hard enough to give ourselves permission for the wounds that show, let alone the wounds that are hidden, that God alone sees. I’m with you on the journey and am feeling that Phoenix is just way too far away.
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Yes! My husband and I work in the Recovery program at our church and we have been saying this for years. They are coming in broken, we can’t have them doing the hard stuff right away, they need time to be heard and loved. It isn’t weak, it isn’t enabling, it’s part of the work.
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Love this comment. Yes – time to be heard and loved. And I love how you identify that it’s not weak or enabling, but affirming who they are in Christ so they can move forward and do the hard work of recovery. Thank you for coming by.
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I will be one of your protectors . . . and I will pray that this wound and any other you hold in your body, head or heart be forever healed by the One who knows best of all the transformative power of an ugly, beautiful wound.
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Oh I love these beautiful words! Thank you so much. So much. Transformative power – those two words are mighty words.
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