Wound For Wound

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)

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He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. – 1 Peter 2:24 (NLT)

Blows and wounds scrub away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being. – Proverbs 20:30 (NIV)

“I just had to go there,” I told the medical secretary when she received a phone call from one of the units that housed female inmates.

Her concern was evident on her face as we were just told over the radio traffic to clear it…Meaning…No one should use it not unless necessary as they had just closed and limited all the movements. Especially with inmates. Sometimes…it was an unannounced drill. Sometimes…it could be the real thing if the whole Custody staff should be looking for a missing inmate or someone who could have escaped.

The call was urgent. One middle-aged female tried to get down from her top bunk. Unfortunately, she slipped and hit her head and a big pool of blood was on the ground. Someone from the unit advised our secretary she had gotten up already. But my expectation was not to move her especially coming from a fall. She could have hurt something in her spine. I told them I would be on the way and that just make her still for me. No matter what position. No matter where she ended up. Just let her stay there.

Loud crying was what I heard as I ascended the steps that reflected a little of the light the control unit had turned on for me. Lots of nosy stares from all the locked cells were by the windows. The deputies yelled to quiet the murmurs going on from those nosy inmates. I saw a deep gash on the downed inmate on her left side of head. Blood had dried up already on her hair and a big amount on the floor where she landed. She denied any medical issue. Except for a long time use of heroin. But she said that was long time ago. She wouldn’t allow me to put pressure on the wound. I apologized to her. That though it would hurt, I had to. To control the bleeding. As I asked the female deputies to call for an ambulance for me and carry with them the spinal board.

She kept crying. Yelling with pain at times. I told her it was expected that it would hurt a lot. Because the wound was big. But she would be treated soon at the county’s hospital. 

“Just try to relax,” was all I could say. The arrival and departure of the ambulance seemed forever. As I started feeling a little achiness on my right hand from keeping that pressure on her gash. The bleeding did stop. That the EMT’s were able to apply the neck collar and put her on the board. She was calm at that moment. A stark contrast when I first arrived.

I got home in the morning. Exhausted from a very busy night that night. And lack of staff. Considering I was only working lesser hours than the regular employees. I prayed no one would get burned out. I turned on the t.v. Trying to relax and forget the stress at work. Only to turn it off right away. There were no good news at all. 

Bombing in Boston Marathon… Robberies… Rape…Murder…

This must have hurt more than that lady’s wound. How many of us are careless with the affairs of our souls! Even with religion, it can harm someone when it lacks the knowledge of what one should know. The evil nature is in each one of us. Sins that are wounds to our souls. Sins that put us in that wretched conditions. Yet, by wounds, those are also healed…No other way than what Jesus had done.