Unless you are a surgeon, doctor or nurse, this would make little sense. We had to get someone to decipher this for us!
My 18-year-old son had just been discharged from hospital and this is the report he was given. He had suffered a broken tibia as a result of a tackle in a football (soccer) game. He had to have a tibial nail inserted. Four doctors were needed to perform this surgery and realign his tibia.
The surgeon’s report is 200 words, but the phrase “finger of faith” stood out. The surgeon had to go in blind (so to speak) with their “finger of faith” to try and manipulate the bone back into place. They had to do this with “faith.” Unable to see what they were doing, the “finger of faith” was needed.
Where do you need a finger of faith in your life?
These are just a few people in my life I know who need a finger of faith to heal what they are going through.
- Healing for my son’s broken leg.
- My mate whose twins were born prematurely, and one is struggling to feed and grow.
- One of my best mate’s Dad battling prostate cancer.
- The footy mate whose son looks set to lose his kidney and possibly a lung due to a collision in an Australian Rules game.
- My mate whose 18-month-old son died this year.
- The husband of a work colleague battling bowel cancer.
- The family of a work colleague struggling and waiting for rain on their farm.
- Friends, students and family battling dark thoughts and mental health issues.
Just a small bit of faith would be wonderful for these people to be healed. Just a touch would be wonderful to bring about a change in their circumstances.
Hands of hope
A passage in the Bible has often intrigued me and one Jewish scholar I listened to said it can often be misinterpreted:
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Matthew 8 verse 20)
Often, I have seen and heard this as revealing Jesus as a man without a home. A man who has nowhere to sleep. Maybe even showing that despite the good work Jesus was doing, people did not give Him even a place to stay; challenging the reader to consider the cost of following Jesus could be homelessness.
An alternate reading of this is that Jesus wants to lay His head on someone like you!
He wants to put his head on your shoulders and for you to be Jesus to those around you. Jesus is no longer with us, but He can live in each and every one of us.
We can be the hand of hope for a broken world. The people I mentioned who would love a finger of faith to heal them or their loved one, like my son, need us to use our hands to give them hope.
- To give a pat on the back of encouragement and tell them we are thinking and praying for them and their loved one.
- To offer a meal.
- To listen to how they are doing.
- To talk to them about work, the footy, what they’re doing on the weekend.
- To ask if there is anything they need, or you can do.
It’s simple, but this is a hand of hope. Jesus would do this. His head on our shoulders is what the world needs to see and hear.
I am reading Tim Costello’s book, “Hope”, to my Grade 11 class. After reading one of the passages to the class, I had a student say to me that with all this bad stuff happening to people I know and Costello’s experiences, it would be so much easier to “flip God the bird” and be done with it!
I tend to agree with this student. It would be much easier to shake our fist at God and tell Him what we really think. I think God wants our emotion and anger to come to him and not just the situations we deal with.
But what should we do then?
To be Jesus to those around us.
Let those around us see Jesus.
If no finger of faith heals them, then offer a hand of hope.
Russell Modlin teaches English and Physical Education at a Christian School on the Sunshine Coast. He is married to Belinda and they have three children.
Russell Modlin’s archive of previous article can be found at www.pressserviceinternational.org/russell-modlin.html