鈥淚t is the dog days of summer here,鈥� I told Ed, my old neighbour, when he called yesterday. The hottest most uncomfortable part of summer has hit us here in B.C. which I call the dog days of summer. In ancient times, the 鈥楧og Days鈥� of summer were blamed for not only excessive heat but also for drought, sudden thunderstorms, fever, bad luck, war, and catastrophe.
鈥淚t has been my uncomfortable days, not only because of the heat, but because I have been taking physiotherapy on my knees. My physiotherapist doesn鈥檛 seem to understand that I am old. My fear is that he has not learned that if something is stiff and you bend it enough, it will break. My young and eager therapist has decided that my one knee is stiff and he is going to make it flexible in a few sessions.
Every session he is bending my stiff knee while asking me to tell him how much it hurts on a scale between 0 and 10. He won鈥檛 believe me when I say a five or six. He has told me that I have no awareness of the pain scale as 6 or 7 is enough pain to be hospitalized. If he won鈥檛, believe me, why would he ask me how much it hurts. I have better things to do than to invent pain numbers that suit my physiotherapist, while he bends my stiff and sore knee.
Ed said that it doesn鈥檛 sound like he is helping you. He advised me that I should quit paying for physical torture. He said he would come out to Chilliwack when the harvest is done, and bend my sore knee for me for half the price I鈥檓 paying the physiotherapist. I passed on his offer. I can stay home and bend my sore knee myself for no cost, and not argue with myself on how much it hurts me.
In the Bible, it is easy to understand why Jesus was so sought after as a healer as well as a teacher or rabbi. There wasn鈥檛 much help for the sick and crippled in the time of Jesus, especially no hospitals or physiotherapists. The way Jesus completely healed and helped people on the spot was amazing. The physical healings that Jesus did were meant to be evidence of who he was 鈥� the very Son of God full of compassion and goodness ready to help people in their mind, body, and soul. 聽
Once when Jesus was preaching, the house he was teaching in was full of people. A paralytic man on a mat was brought by four men so Jesus could heal him. They could not get the man to Jesus because of the crowd. The men took the paralyzed man to the roof, opened the roof and lowered the man on his mat down before Jesus. Jesus said to the paralytic, 鈥淪on your sins are forgiven.鈥� Some other teachers there thought that only God could forgive sins and Jesus is not God. Therefore, Jesus said to the paralytic, 鈥淭ake up your mat and go home.鈥澛� The cured paralytic got up and went home because Jesus had the authority to heal both the body and the soul as the Son of God.聽聽聽
