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Bandaids and Baby Skin

Bandaids and Baby Skin

Last updated on: June 25, 2015 at 9:35 am by Steve Austin

Bandaids and Baby Skin 2015-06-25T09:35:16-05:00 Steve Austin

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“If it’s not yours, don’t touch it!” Words I swore I’d never say.

Funny how we have those thoughts as teenagers and on into young adult life, as the babies begin to arrive. It’s easy to think, “I’ll never say the things MY parents said…” but when it happens for the first time, you realize you are absolutely, totally and completely DOOMED. There’s no changing it, no praying it away, and no amount of parenting books or classes will change your DNA.

I am laughing as I type this, thinking of all the other things I said that I would NEVER say or do, in an attempt to break the mold and not be “just like my Dad”.

“Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.” (Deut. 11:1)

It’s comical now, but last night, as Ben Thomas bit the eyepiece off the nice set of binoculars, and two weeks ago when he tore up the face of the entertainment stand, and a few nights ago when he dumped out the entire bottle of baby wash into the bath tub to “make bubbles”, I yelled it like second nature*…”BEN THOMAS! If it’s not yours, don’t touch it!”*

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother–which is the first commandment with a promise–that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Eph. 6:1-3)

Well, I lost that battle. And so many others. In countless things that I say and do and even the WAY that I say things, I am like Glenn Cecil Austin. And the older I get, the more “okay” with that I become. I love you, Pop.

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15)

Now, skip a generation from Papaw and let’s talk about a lesson I learned recently from Ben Thomas…Last Sunday morning, BT was warned not to mess with his Momma’s flat-iron in the bathroom. Two minutes later, he was screaming, crying, and having an absolute fit. Why? He touched the flat-iron.

His index finger is still very blistered and we’ve been coating it with lavender oil and keeping it wrapped in a couple of bandaids. It took hours to get the kid calmed down and to convince him to take his hand out of the cup of cold water. In my feeble attempt to stop the tears and get some sanity back in the house, I was finally able to get a bandaid on his finger by telling him, “This is a magic bandaid. It will make it all better!”

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. (Ps. 107: 19-21)

He’s worn the bandaid every day since. We’ve swapped it out for new ones, twice a day, of course. But he hasn’t been more than a couple of minutes without a bandaid on that finger. Which is probably smart for a wild-eyed three-year-old.

Everything was fine until last night. He took a shower with his Momma and when he came back to the kitchen, where I was cleaning up from supper, he proclaimed, “Dada, I need a bandaid!” No biggie, right? He’s learned that this magic bandaid will make it all better, so I walked over to the shelf and grabbed a couple of bandages and prepared to be Doctor Dad.

Here’s where things went South quickly. He had a case of the old man finger. You know what I’m talking about? When you’re in the pool all afternoon, or you take a really long bath after a really long day and when you finally get out, your hands are all wrinkled and it looks like you’ve lost the pigment in your palms? Old man finger. He had it and there was no denying it.

So, I decided that his skin needed to dry out a bit before we tried to put a bandaid on it, since nothing would stay on that soggy finger at this point. When I told him that he’d have to wait a while before we could put another bandage on, you would have thought I had just run over his dog, on purpose, in front of him, and then put the car in reverse and…well…you get the picture. It wasn’t good.

O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. (Ps. 30:2)

He screamed, stomped, cried, and wouldn’t stop. “I need a bandaid! I need a bandaid! I need a bandaid RIGHT NOW!” This lasted for an eternal fifteen minutes because this child is now convinced that the only thing that is going to heal his finger is a “magic bandaid”.

Doesn’t that sound like us? I know it has sounded like me before. And the connection between these two lessons struck me right between the eyes: If it’s not yours, don’t touch it, because a bandaid will not make it all better.

If it’s not your wife, don’t touch her.
If it’s not your money, don’t touch it.
If it’s not your calling, don’t touch it.
If it’s not yours, don’t touch it.

But if you do, please understand that healing doesn’t come because of the “easy fix” of a bandaid. Healing can take a great deal of time and patience and Jesus.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God,smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)

It seems so easy at times, just to slap a bandaid on an issue and try to move forward, but eventually, you’re going to get old man finger, that bandage is going to rot, you’re going to get dirt under it, it’s going to fester, and you’re going to be in a much worse situation that you could have possibly imagined.

Healing comes through the work of Jesus Christ and Him alone. In no other name will we ever find healing, but the process begins with a simple, “Help me.”

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits–who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion… (Ps. 103:2-4)

If you’re like me, you’ve probably had a case of that old wrinkly skin on your heart before (maybe you do now), but the good news is that all we have to do is ask Jesus for baby skin again, and He’ll gladly heal our hearts. Let Him heal yours today.

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