Dr. Richard Selzer

It Still Works

Dr. Richard Selzer wrote about a report that he gave after a surgery he
performed on a young lady had left a lasting blemish:

I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her
mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one
to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus from now
on. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh;
I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had
to cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on
the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening
lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself, he and
this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously,
greedily?

The young woman speaks. "Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks.

"Yes," I say, "it will. It is because the nerve was cut."

She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. "I like it," he says,
"It is kind of cute." All at once I know who he is. I understand and I
lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with greatness. Unmindful,
he bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so close I can see how he twists
his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still
works. *

Our sins have marred the image of our souls. We have "missed the mark" in
many ways (Romans 3:23) leaving scars that glaringly reveal our mistakes.

But when Jesus looks at us, His gaze is one of love. He loves us anyway,
scars and all. He came to us and died on the cross for our sins so that we
may be made whole in His sight (1 Peter 2:24). Despite the mistakes of our
past and our future, His grace still works. He has never stopped loving us,
and He never will.

Accept His offer of love, grace, and life. Place your faith and trust in
Him (Acts 16:30-31), turn from your sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31),
confess His sweet and glorious name (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized
(immersed) into Christ and He will cleanse your soul (Acts 2:38; 22:16).
Then continue to follow Him faithfully, and He will continue to cleanse you
from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7-9).

Marred by sin, we come face to face with Jesus. Though it cost Him His life
to pay for our sins, He looks at us with love and mercy, longing for us to
accept His offer of salvation and eternal life.

"Bring Christ your broken life, So marred by sin; He will create anew, Make
whole again.
Your empty, wasted years, He will restore, And your iniquities Remember no
more."
-- T.O. Chisholm

And when we accept His offer, we realize that we have encountered God - a
loving, gracious God.

-- David A. Sargent

* Richard Selzer, M.D., Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery, 1978,
pp. 45-6 as quoted in www.sermonillustrations.com.