God twisted his lips ....

From a book titled "Mortal Lessons," by Richard Selzer, M.D.

"I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus from now on. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve. "

Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily?

The young woman speaks. "Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks. "Yes," I say, "it will. It is because the nerve was cut."

She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. "I like it," he says, "It is kind of cute."

All at once I know who he is. I understand and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a god. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that there kiss still works."

Touching story. Brennan Manning makes an observation on this passage which I thought was so cool. In 2 Corinthians 5:19 it says, "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." KJV

Even though in this world we are touched by our own consequences and the consequences of others action, sickness, alcoholism, broken relationships, insecurity, hatred, jealously, cancer and on and on. This was all experienced by our Lord, "a thing despised and rejected by men" Isaiah 53:3. Its as though God twisted his lips to accommodate our sinful selves, scripture shows He loves us so!

Just thought I would bring this up ... Tim