It happens way too often where I find myself being caught up in something that I thought I already worked through and got rid of.

Yesterday, I ended up falling and getting a splinter in my palm. I couldn’t wait to get home to get it out. After I endured the uneasiness of scraping it out, I was relieved and was fine.

This morning I woke up and I still felt the pain in my palm. I ignored it for a bit and then I decided to check it out.

When I did, I found another splinter directly across from the area. Plain as day.

I was so shocked that I didn’t see it yesterday. I was staring and focusing and working on that same area, and didn’t even notice.

We do this all the time in our lives. We see something problematic, we trek through it, and we work it out.

Until tomorrow comes and we wonder why we still feel pain and we still have thoughts about the issue.

I think we tend to imagine that everything that hurts us causes just one issue in our lives, and if we can solve it in our way and time, we can find healing and we’re set.

But it’s just not true.

We aren’t a body made up of separate pieces or even a brain wired only to certain areas. Even our human identity shows us that everything is connected and intertwined.

And God made us this way for a reason.

Whenever you are feeling the weight and the pain of something that should have been dealt with, don’t exclude yourself from needing more time to heal.

We’re not people who are made whole simply by solving a puzzle, but we find wholeness in Jesus as we continue to journey.

Just because you have more than one splinter from the same fall, doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. It’s just an opportunity to look upon the One who helps us through all things.

Don’t let the shock of not feeling whole or perfect or renewed allow you to be distracted from the greater picture of how you are being made whole and perfect and renewed.