Jesus Understands Your Pain by Joy Garcia Reinagel

Today’s guest blogger is Joy Reinagel. Joy is a speaker and a former Bexar County, Texas Sheriff’s Deputy. With her husband, Joe, she founded 1013 Ministries, a ministry that shares the word of God through faith In Jesus Christ. She and Joe, the lead sportscaster at the CBS affiliate in San Antonio, speak about their redemption story as a couple to encourage other married couples to place Christ at the center of their lives.

Dedicated to Aunt Linda

Pumps pumping, blood churning, tubes in just the right spot, bed after bed. Daily trips to a cold chair.

Prick-after-prick.

Tube-after-tube.

That is the life of patient going through kidney dialysis and preparing for a bone marrow transplant.

Looking around at all patients you think about Jesus’ incredible grace. You may wonder how I could possibly say anything like this? Let’s think about it this way:

We are created as a masterpiece. The fact that our blood even churns and pumps is a miracle. While Jesus was being crucified, his blood was also churning and pumping. He was in agony from the torture he had to endure. There was unbearable pain from the crown filled with thorns of roses. No matter what we have to go through, Jesus carried the ultimate cross for us.

The pumping and churning of blood may be through tubes. Needles and IV’s might seem endless and painful. The process and bone marrow transplant is not a pleasant experience. There are residual effects from medication after medication. The one thing that is certain, Jesus is using modern technology to cleanse your blood. The needles may not be thorns, but they pierce. And the new bone marrow is the beginning of a new day. The nurses call this a patient’s new Happy Birthday!

So you see Jesus is the ultimate Physician. When, after enduring pain on the cross, he rose again, that was also the beginning of a new day.

Only God knows how to re-stitch and heal His masterpiece. We are his children. We may not understand our journey of life or the challenges we must face but if we stand still enough and listen, we would realize He is always in control of this journey. Every journey has its labor pains. During childbirth there is tremendous amount of pain, however there is joy in the life created, a masterpiece. Through the journey of pumping and churning, endless pain and medication there will be a new birthday!

Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. There is no greater than He.

This is for a strong woman of courage. She is standing firm in faith fighting the good fight. As she stands fighting her Battle of Jericho, her army stands firm along side her ready on the line with the power of prayer. We love her so. This prayer is for you for we know His grace covers you with love. In this journey you are carried by His arms, for strength is delivered by His unconditional love.

His amazing grace.