This picture hardly needs a caption. The cast and the face say it all. I’d be tempted to whine just a teensy bit except it has been a good long while since I’ve had to make a trip to the ER with one of my boys, and we managed to make this one in under two hours. Hats off to Melissa, Jina, Allison, and Kyle at Hillcrest ER. They were all top-notch!
For those of you who like details, Cam managed to break his fourth and fifth metacarpals on his right hand while playing a friendly game of basketball on Sunday. After two semesters of Anatomy and Physiology at Tarleton, he knew exactly which bones his metacarpals were, too. Such a smart boy! And, he proudly told Gina, the nurse practitioner, that originally the bones were really poking out, but he just pushed them back into place. She told him he did a pretty good job of resetting the bones, but that if he would have let her do it, she would’ve deadened it first. Not only is he smart, but he’s tough, too. Heck, he even finished the game before he called to tell me he needed to go to the ER. After all, he can dribble and pass left-handed, too.
Thankfully, we’re all set to see an orthopedic surgeon on Thursday and he’ll get his hand permanently set and in six short weeks, his broken bones will be all healed.
Which gets me to thinking… and remembering a quote I once heard…
A broken bone can heal, but the wound
a word opens can fester forever. Jessamyn West
Isn’t that so true? We sometimes carry hurtful words with us for a lifetime. The deep scars they inflict on our hearts and our self-confidence are real and painful. They can dramatically and dangerously misshape our perspective and the image we see when we look in the mirror. A mere mention can bring back piercing memories, and the wound is raw again.
Oh that we would be careful with our words just as Jesus’s brother, James, reminds us in James 1:19 NET:
“Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
And I would add, “…and be quick to love!”
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
But words should show you love me!