Last summer, I went fishing on a mountain stream and the triple hook lure that I fish with accidentally penetrated deeply into my left index finger. All three hooks of the lure were so deep into the flesh of my finger that I doubted if I could ever get it out, but I had to try.

The idea of the pain involved in getting it out was overwhelming to my mind. I wanted to avoid removing the hooks and wondered if I could leave them in my finger and drive my car to a hospital.  The long drive and the pain of having the hooks in my finger while steering the car made me realize that I had to get the hooks out now. 

I was taking Coumadin, blood thinner, and my blood was very thin.  I knew that precise removal of the hooks was necessary or I could bleed to death.  I began to sweat and the perspiration rolled into my eyes as I tried to focus on the hooks.  My right hand trembled and the pain seemed to be throughout my entire left arm.

It was no use; I knew that I was going rip my finger so badly that I would never be able to use it, and possibly I would bleed to death..  I prayed and desperately asked God to give me a miracle and show me how to remove the hooks without damaging my finger more. The calm assurance came to me that God would help me remove the hooks. Then, I tried to remove the hooks.

After I removed the hooks, I was pleased that it had been accomplished without a trace of further damage to my finger, I was able to drive easily to the hospital.  I described to the ER doctor the kind of hook I had in my finger and he said that I had the skill of a surgeon.  I didn’t say anything, but I smiled, because I knew who had helped me get free from the hooks.

As I drove away from the hospital, I thought about the hooks and the miracle of getting them out with only a small trace of the wound. I thought that the hooks were similar to the type of barbs that Satan will use to make us feel helpless and unable to be clean and pure before God.  He uses as a tool the feelings of guilt that we may feel when we slip-up to make us feel worthless and unable to repent of our past mistakes. 

He wants us to feel that there is not a way to remove the hook of immorality, the hook of dishonesty, or the treacherous hook of heartlessness.  He wants us to believe his lies and to feel that there is no way to change a bad habit or to ask for forgiveness of a transgression.  Satan will use many other types of hooks to trap us such hopelessness and depression.  All these hooks and more are his tools to ensnare us and make us feel that it isn’t possible to remove any of the wounds of sin.  By the grace of God and through the Savior’s Atonement, the removal of sin is possible and even the deepest wounds will become clean and they will heal.

Tags: Grace Atonement Repentance RuntoTomorrow

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