A Plain Box of Band-Aids.

A Plain Box of Band-Aids--October 11, 2016

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." [Revelation 22:1-2]

It's for everybody.

I went to the store a few months back with both of my kids in the cart. We were on a quest for basic household staples--new kitchen trash bags, boxes of macaroni and cheese, new children's shampoo, and the all-important fashion accessory/first-aid supply: band-aids.

We got to the first aid aisle, and as I grabbed a box of the bandages, my daughter of three says, "Is this for me?"  So I answered, "Well, it's for you, and your brother... and for me and for Mommy... for whoever has a cut and will need a Band-Aid sometime."  This question, it turns out, is a matter of no small importance to a three and a five year old, because like their choice of toothbrush or breakfast cereal, band-aids are an essential part of their artistic expression and personal style.  If the band-aids are just for you, then logically, you get to pick whether the box has Hello Kitty or the Ninja Turtles, the Minions or an assortment of dinosaurs printed on it.   So for my daughter, the question, and its answer, were imbued with great significance.

With a nod of understanding, she synthesized my list of names.  "It's for everybody?" 

"Yes," I nodded.  "It's for everybody."

Pleasantly (and I must say, somewhat surprisingly), that seemed to settle the matter for her.  There were no protests on that day that I had chosen plain band-aids, over cartoon characters that were designed and packaged to appeal to one person, one gender, or one age group in our family.  There was no insistence from either child that "it wasn't fair," and there was no crying or pleading for superheroes or Dora the Explorer.  Because, it seemed settled--could it really have been this easy?--that these band-aids were for everyone.  No one person got to claim them all, and yet no one would be turned away who needed one.  They were for everybody.

That meant, of course, that the only qualification, the only pre-requisite, for getting one of these band-aids from the medicine cabinet in our first floor bathroom... is that you need healing.  The band-aids are for healing, and the healing is for anybody who will need it when they come to our house.  Even guests. Even visiting relatives or friends. Even next door neighbor kids who scrape their knee when they come over to our house to play on the steps.  The band-aids in the box are for the healing of anybody who is (a) at our house and (b) needs one. 

My three-year-old daughter understood that. She could be content with that.  It is a simple enough idea, but it is also radical--these things are for healing, and therefore anybody who needs healing can have one. 

The last chapter of the book we call the Revelation to John has a similarly simple but radical vision. There in the center of the new creation, when all things are made new, there is a tree--the ancient tree of life, like it was plucked up from Eden's untended garden and transplanted into better soil.  The tree keeps producing fruit all year long, every month, so there is never a need to hoard or steal. 

And its leaves?  Well, those are for the healing of the nations. 

Are they only for me?  No... they are for me... and you... and for people who live in the city... and for people who live in the country... for people who live in red states, and for people who live in blue states.... for people who will vote for a Democrat for president this year, and for people who will vote for a Republican... for people whose families look like yours, and for people whose families look quite different... for people who cover their heads out of piety and modesty, and for people who keep their heads uncovered in celebration of their freedom... for people who seem so Christ-like you'd almost swear they were Jesus' stunt doubles, and for people who seem to have never met Jesus at all... for people in liberal democracies, and for people living under dictators... for people whose skin looks like yours, and for people whose complexion is a different crayon from the crayon box.  "The leaves on the tree of life are for the healing of the nations." That is to say, they are for everybody.

At the tail end of our Bibles, in a book full of visions of what we might simply call "the end of the world," there is a surprising twist.   On the last page of the story, despite all the violence and bloodshed of human history, despite all the many ways we have divided ourselves from one another, ostracized and "othered" each other, and refused to listen to one another, yet on the last page of the story there is the tree from back in the first chapter, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.  The wounds within us, as well as the wounds between us.  The pain in my own heart, the scars that are left on yours, and the pain of the estrangement between you and me, too. 

The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No one person got to claim them all, and yet no one will be turned away who needs one. 

The healing is for the nations.  It's for everybody.

Whatever else the Christian story means, it means that.  Whatever else is a part of our belief about how human history goes from here, or when Jesus comes again, or what happens to the world on which we live, whatever divergence of opinions there are on any of those subjects, the story ends with "the healing of the nations" with aloe from the leaves of the tree of life.  So if your own personal faith, your own personal worldview, or your own politics and priorities and values are missing that crucial picture--that in the end, all nations, all peoples, everybody gets healing for free--then it is time to re-examine your faith in light of the actual picture of the Scriptures.  If my theology makes no room for a God who will just up and heal all the nations at the end, because I am more interested in wishing to see somebody get punished, or because I can see the history of nations only in terms of "winners" and "losers," then it is time for me to re-read my Bible and discover that God chooses to end the story with "Healing is coming for all the nations.  It's for everybody."

My three year old girl understands that.  It is time for us to take it seriously, too.

Lord Jesus, speak to us again your hopeful vision of healing for all the nations, and let our actions now reflect hope in that kind of future.