The US recognizes Memorial Day at the end of every May. Those that have been wounded or killed or served in wars of many types are remembered or honored. When we have been overseas in other countries, we have found similar holidays.
Sometimes the wounds of war and conflict go very deep. I have friends that served in several past wars. Many had wounds. Many still have them. The physical wounds can be mild or severe, but learning to live with their effects can be a challenge, especially when they have affected the heart of a person.
My Dad has heart wounds but it was the practice and teaching his generation to keep them private or out of sight. Decades later he would tell a few stories. That is how I found out he had a heart wound. How do you heal those? It takes time, persistence, and love. He does not communicate much anymore, so the grown children really don’t know how much healing has occurred. We still remind him of our love. When I visit, I pray with him, because I know that real permanent and lasting healing comes from a source beyond flesh and blood.
I was wrapping my wife’s arm the other night. 
She has a severe case of lymphedema that came from treatment of the first cancer of five that she walked through. I was thinking about the process of the therapy she received just a couple weeks ago and the wrapping procedure I was taught. It involves four different wraps in alternating directions; bandage seams have to be placed so they are not over each other; each wrap tightness has to be correct and appropriate; the elbow has to be treated a little differently; and several other factors play a part as well. I had re-wrap her arm several times when I made mistakes. The swelling gradually went down. Now she must wear a new compression sleeve at the right time. It takes our love applied to the situation to do this, especially on top of the current walk in a cancer pronounced “terminal.” So, I know (and she knows even better) the pressures and effects of a different kind of war, but it is still war to walk in this kind of battlefield.
What about the soldier’s memory of a comrade blown to bits at his side, or the warrior who has watched innocent civilians become cannon fodder, or the soldier that holds the riveting memory of delivering death? I have friends who served in a “modern conflict” a few decades ago. Their media posts are pretty plain. They still live like the battle was this morning and want some kind of closure that has escaped them. What about the spouses and children that are affected?
How does one bind up all of these kinds of wounds in a broken world?
Linda and I know the One who knew of us before the earth began. That has not kept us from conflicts around us or in the heart. However, knowing Him goes a long way because He knows every injury, wound, brokenness, the people who have them, and the people who deliver them. His love and righteousness is so patient, so persistent, so firm, and so eternal that He knows how to show up at the doorstep of our heart at the right time to walk with us and begin healing us from the inside out if we acknowledge Him and call on Him. Then He goes further by teaching us the same language and actions so we (by his grace) might even bind up the wounds of others.
Even if people’s wounds are carried to the grave, He goes deeper and does not leave us as orphans–even on earth. In the end, with Him, everything shall be completely healed. If it does not happen here, it will have occurred in the age to come with Him. In the meantime, He is still in the business of binding wounds, and may even give us a chance to bind the wounds on each other. Jesus Christ paid a high price to make this possible. If you carry wounds like I have described, please call on Him if you have not. He forgives sin, puts forgiveness in the heart, and knows how to bind up the wounds that come in a broken world better than anyone on this earth. Isaiah 61 begins with a statement. Jesus Christ repeats it in Luke 4:19 (NIV translation)…
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
