A Wound to Remember

This morning I had intended to post on a completely different subject (which I will soon), but was derailed during my Bible reading this morning.  I was reading over the passage in Genesis 32 when Jacob wrestles with a man until daybreak.  This man is pre-incarnate Christ, who speaks and acts with the authority of God.  Genesis 32:25 says, "Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him."  My typical morning starts with prayer and reading a chapter of the Bible, focusing on a verse or theme.  The following is my first meditations on this verse which I write in a notebook:

When a man wrestles with God, he will be forever altered.  From that day forward, Jacob walked with a limp.  But with the limp came a blessing and promise.  His name was changed from Jacob to Israel, from "supplanter" to "God strives."  There is no wound sweeter or more cherished than when God does the wounding.  A man having survived a fierce gun fight will gladly show the scars from the bullets which passed through him; a war veteran recounts a battle where shrapnel tore through his leg and neck with enthusiasm to his wide-eyed grandchildren.  But a man who has been wounded by God can scarce describe the event with words when he was broken.  Though he may show no physical scar, his soul will never be the same.

God is the Good Shepherd who wounds His own sheep when it is good for them, and will never destroy His own.  Jacob's limp was a testimony of God's grace, love, and unshakable promises.  When the finger of God touches us we tread upon holy ground.  From that day forward out of reverence for God and His promise towards Israel and his children, the Israelites did not eat the sinew that shrank.  Genesis 32:32 says, "Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank."  Jacob hobbled on his lame leg for the rest of his life.

To unbelievers, the touch of God seems a curse, not a blessing.  Yet to those who know God and have been touched, they would never trade that wound for all the earthly riches of kings.  Jesus too was wounded, wounded at the hands of man by the will of God.  He showed His scars to the disciples and that is how they recognized Him.  You know a man by his wounds:  they distinguish him.  They identify him truer than a rectangular of plastic with his name stamped in embossed letters complete with hologram that he carries in a wallet.  Many people can have brown hair or blue eyes, but to have a particular scar in a certain area is living proof.

God knows us just the same, having put His name upon us.  He knows our afflictions, prayers, loves, and desires.  As a cattle rancher brands his cows, God marks His men.  He knows them and they follow Him.  "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me," Jesus says.  Thomas looked upon the wounds of Jesus and said, "My Lord and my God."  When God looked upon our wounds He says, "My beloved!  I am yours and you are Mine!"  Wrestle with the LORD, and refuse to let go except He bless you.  And after He has blessed you, cling closer still.