Perspective

I was just reading an article about a lawsuit over a little boy that was accidentally mutilated by a doctor. I’m not going to go into details about how that happened, but suffice it to say that such things do happen.

Sometimes mutilations happen on purpose, as when a limb is amputated to prevent gangrene from spreading, or when cancer has become so advanced that radical surgical procedures are called for.Someone close to me recently lost a testicle for that reason, and is now undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer (the two cancers don’t appear to be related). Three friends of mine had their gall bladders removed last year. A friend of a friend is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. I don’t know what protocols are being used in her case, but I know that, well, you know. It’s been said that men have a biological imperative to seek out women with ample ability to nurse babies, if you catch my drift, but in this day and age where formula is readily available, is that even necessary anymore? At the same time, I have to admit that I think it would take some adjusting on my part to get used to hugging a woman that had survived a double-mastectomy (or even a single mastectomy Still, I think that, if this were a woman that I loved, her surgery would not change my feelings toward her. If I met a woman that were such a survivor, I would like to think that I would be able to get past that, because I know that it shouldn't really make any difference.

One could argue, in each case, that God gave us these organs for a reason. In some cases, He also installed spares; that is, a one-eyed man can still see, and so on. Of course, a one-eyed man loses depth perception, but he still has some sight.A man with one lung may experience breathing problems, but he can generally still breathe. God only gave us each one gall bladder, though; was it simply not important enough to require a spare? One can certainly live a long time without a gall bladder.

One thing that a lot of people seem to miss is that our bodies are temporal. I know that losing a limb or an organ doesn’t make any difference to God, as far as how much He loves us. Perhaps I shouldn’t say it doesn’t make any difference, it’s possible that he loves the mutilated among us even more; He certainly doesn’t love them any less. Now I have a responsibility to love as God loves, even though, in this my body, I sometimes suffer from a tendency to look on the outward appearance. I know better, but my flesh is weak. My point is, though, that all of these things pass away in time. We have a bad tendency to become angry or outraged at the things that befall us in this life, yet this is the short life. Average age is, what, 72? 73? Let's suppose that you live to be 100. How does that compare with eternity? Even if you live to be 120, how does that compare with infinity? If we express that as a mathematical fraction, 120/∞, what does that work out to be? The mathematical term for that is "infinitesimal," meaning, basically, way too small to measure. Try to imagine a decimal point followed by more zeroes than you have ever seen, followed by a one at the end. I'm guessing that you aren't imagining enough zeroes. Try to imagine the importance of one grain of sand, compared to all the sand on all the beaches in all the world, multiplied by several trillion. Or one speck of dust, trying to fill in the Grand Canyon (and even that is selling it short). This is the short life, folks. If you're lucky enough to have enjoyable journey on this side, more power to you, but if you have a miserable life, just remember that, in perspective, it isn't going to last very long.