Soothing Ointment

 

Soothing Ointment

A long, long tome ago, in an upstairs room far away, a young boy lay in his bed wrenched with pain. Heavy set and unfit physically, he had attempted a running pull up on a sagging branch of an old Boxelder tree. His hands and arms could not hold the load required of them. He slipped to the ground and twisted the disc in his low back. Doctors were not use for such injuries at that time in history. The only available treatment was an old bottle of white lineament ointment. Called horse lineament because of its powerful burning affect, it blistered the boys low back. Though the ointment did little to ease the pain from damaged lumbar bones, it helped enough to justify its use. Gradually the ointment decreased in the bottle and disappeared. The pain subsided to a tolerable level only to reappear with any exertion to his back. Pain became a life long torment with any back agitation. Today, you can often see that boy as an old man bent over a cane or walker hobbling along suffering back pain. That ointment had been precious to him but became used up. Other ointments in history have been used differently.

Exodus 30:25 “and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

Proverbs 27:9 “ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.”

Matthew 26:7 “there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. Matthew 26:12 “for in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Luke7:37 :...and, behold, a woman in the city, ...,whein she knew that jesus sat at meat in the pharisee's house, brought an

alabaster box of ointment, 38 and stood at his feet behind him  weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.” 

John 12:3 “then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.”

James 5:14 “is any sick among you? let Him call for the elders of the church; and letthem pray over him, anointing him with oil in 

the name of the lord: 15 and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” 

Know God, know peace. Amen 12/07/20 BLL