A few weeks ago, my husband had a "small accident." I got a phonecall at about 2:00. It was Husband asking the signs of a broken arm. This is the man who refused to go to the hospital two years ago, even though he had a broken rib and a collapsed lung. I knew if he was calling, it must be bad. So I gave him the symptoms of a fracture. He thought about it for a few seconds and then said, "I guess we'd better go to the Emergency Room."
I found a last-minute babysitter, and Husband and I went to the hospital. His arm looked gross. He explained that a neighbor's tractor had gotten stuck, and he went to pull it out with a second tractor. The tow chain snapped, and projected toward Husband's face. He threw his arm up to protect his face, and the chain hit his forearm. By the time I saw his arm, it was bloody and swollen to about twice the size of his other arm. I (along with every nurse and PA who looked at his arm) was 100% positive that it was broken. It was swollen, he couldn't rotate his wrist, and he had no feeling in his hand. But we had to wait for a radiologist's report of the X-ray just to be sure.
While we waited for the X-ray results, Husband kept saying, "It's not broken...I have strong bones because I drink milk!" He told me, and the nurses, and the housekeeper, and the PA. And every time he said it, I rolled my eyes and said, "Look at your arm. It's broken." But Husband refused to believe it. Apparently three glasses of raw milk a day counteract the effects of a half-inch chain slamming into your bare arm at 100 miles per hour. Completely logical.
After about 20 minutes of listening to Husband rant about how much milk he drinks, the PA came back with the radiology report. Husband's arm was not broken. Unbelievable. To look at his arm, you'd have though he just hit it about twenty times with the claw-end of a hammer. The muscle was severely damaged, and there was a high risk for infection. But if he listened to the Doc's orders, he'd be fine within a few weeks.
Fast forward to four days later, and I'm sitting in church, listening to the pastor's sermon. He was making mention of the Body of Christ, and how sometimes the Body can be in disunity, fractured. My mind went back to the ER, listening to Husband talk about the benefit of drinking milk. And then I thought of the scripture in I Peter that talks of the benefits of milk: "... long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow..."
The Book of Romans tells us that we, the Church, are a single Body. And just like the human body, there are many different parts. The different pieces look and function differently, but they are necessary for a perfectly functioning Body. So it is with the Body of Christ. But so often I have seen fracturing in the Body. We become entitled and proud, believing that we are the most important part of the Body, and that other parts are less important, or even worse, dispensable. Very quickly, we begin to cut off parts of the Body...a big toe or a nose or a knee cap. And we, by our own pride, fracture the Body of Christ. Or sometimes, the Body experiences a head-on-collision. There's a disagreement that we can't settle, or a problem that we can't solve. Instead of turning to the Word for an answer, we allow the situation to get the best of us, to fracture our Body.
The very simple solution: Drink Milk. Not the white stuff that comes from cows. Instead, drink of the milk of His Word. When we ingest that Milk, it becomes obvious that all the "lesser" or "different" Body parts are necessary. And the parts that seem so extraordinarily different than us create a sense of balance and moderation. Soon, the Body will become strong, and will be able to withstand when we face those proverbial head-on-collisions. So remember to drink Milk, because it does a Body good.
