With a safety pin and a crummy pair of tweezers, I began to operate. As originally predicted, it was a beauty all right. And no little surface splinter either. I dug, and dug. Slowly working away layer by layer, trying not to make things worse by splintering the splinter itself. Finally, after numerous attempts, and contorting my hand in such a way as to allow all the surgeons room to operate, my Mom got a grip on the splinter and ripped it out! "Owwwwwww! That hurt!!!", I exclaimed, now nursing my poor finger. "Think about what Jesus went through", my Mom replies.
We never really think about it like that do we. Don't get me wrong, we know what He suffered on our behalf, but do we know the pain He went through? Physically, Mentally? You could say He endured the "splinter of all splinters" so to speak for us, being nailed to a tree on our behalf.
So as I thought later about the comment my Mom had made, I really felt God laying this little lesson on my heart. Similar to the story of the Millionaire and the Penny, maybe we should apply the same type of thought each time we get a splinter. Let it remind us of the pain and sin festering deep inside us, and how Jesus Himself worked at it piece by piece, layer by layer, then reached in and plucked it out!
