One morning, about three weeks ago, I got up early and went outside to get in my two miles around the neighborhood. It was a great day for walking. Temperatures were just right and nobody was stirring in the streets. But even as I bounded down the brick steps outside my kitchen door, I noticed a sharp pain in my left heel. One mile into the walk/run and I was limping home. The old-timers call it a stone bruise. The kids call it heel shock. But, after limping three weeks, buying new New Balances, and doing Achilles stretches to no avail, the x-ray is labeled “plantar fasciitis,” and the pain is labeled “intense.”
In the Digging Deep study this month, we are into the book of Genesis and we are especially digging for promises. By far and away, in my mind, the most important promise in Genesis is about a heel bruise. I could not keep from thinking about Genesis 3:15 when I first felt the intensity of the heel pain that morning as I walked.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
This is the promise of victory in God’s battle against the devil for my soul and it involves a heel bruise. See, Satan was headed for a fatal blow to the head at Calvary. But, as horrific as the bloody scene was, when Christ was suspended between heaven and earth, on a Roman cross, with nails through His hands and feet, for those six hours on that spring day—in the final analysis, it was only a heel bruise. The real injury was a fatal one and it was delivered to the snake. His head was crushed. Snakes are dead, by the way, when their heads are crushed.
I left the doctor’s office with an arch pad that has already improved my pain about a thousand percent and the doctor said, “It will be completely gone very soon.” He put some joy in front of me with those words. Christ, for the joy that was set before him, endured the suffering of the cross, despising the shame, so that he could sit down on the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2). The awful scene at Golgotha was proven to be but a heel bruise when the stone was rolled away. Victorious, triumphant, glorious and very much alive, the Savior had conquered the snake in Eve’s tree. The heel was 100% well when Jesus sat down on the right hand of His Father.
Have you thought about the fact that the controller of your destiny is either the One with the heel bruise or the one whose head was crushed? Have you thought about how disingenuous it really is…how very short-sighted…to be living it up in the party of life when the party is hosted by a dead snake?
Guess what, girlfriends? I’m hitting the pavement again this morning. The heel is getting close to 100%. Sure, it was painful and yes, it was expensive. But Dr. Chmielewski said that, once it stops hurting, it will never bother me again. I like the sound of that. Sounds like another analogy about that place where the heel-bruised Savior is waiting. Ah…to never hurt…ever…again…
Reminder: This Thursday night at 8EDT, 7CST, is the first ever Nugget Night podcast for those who are Digging Deep. I hope I get to chat with you then! http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/112808
