The Tin Man Cometh and Goeth
I enjoy the Lola cartoon. This weekend, Lola was standing in line at the airport waiting to pass through the metal detector. Ahead of her stands the Tin Man, axe in hand. “Oh, great,” Lola thinks, “This will move things along.”
The Tin Man has been on my mind this week since I had hernia surgery on Tuesday. “It was a full hernia,” Sylvia Steiling, the surgeon, told Becky, “We had to put in a mesh.” So now I have twelve heart bypasses, four stents some things akin to pig snout rings holding my chest together and a mesh holding my innards in. In fact, Dr. Steiling said she did clean up some errant skin growth that resulted from previous cuttings and puncturings. After one of my bypass surgeries Becky looked at me and said, “You look like you live a violent life.” Well, being a preacher does have its risks.
What will I look like in the resurrection? Will I be able to compare scars with Jesus?
Back to the Tin Man. Every so many hours, on a decreasing scale as the days progressed, he would take over my body. I would roll off the couch, get to my feet, take a step and then the pain would seize up my body. The Tin Man had possessed me again. “I need a Tylenol,” I would plead. Becky, my wife and caretaker, would get some water and that white extra strength pill. Soon my muscles relaxed, the pain eased and I mobilized again.
The Tin Man’s axe did come into play after my first heart bypass. Our family physician stopped by and asked how I was doing. “Not too bad for someone who just had their chest split open with an axe,” I replied. That was also the stay during which I had to turn off an Abbott and Costello movie on Sunday morning. My laughter was killing me.
This morning I awoke and noticed that the Tin Man had returned to Oz.
The folks at Pinckneyville/Conant are using the Order of Matins this morning. With them I sing, “Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving: …for He is our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
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