To make whole

"Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity."- Hippocrates

Heal - (verb)- to make sound or whole, to restore to health; to cause (an undesirable condition) to be overcome; to patch up. Synonyms: cure, fix, mend, rehabilitate.

I've had the above quote on my fridge for awhile, mostly because the picture it's on is beautiful, but also because it intrigues me. Of course healing takes time, but what does it mean to allow it an opportunity? And how can I give myself and God that opportunity for healing?

Healing is a process. We all have unseen injuries to our hearts that require time to heal. Sometimes they are small cuts, such as hurtful words from someone, and sometimes they are large lacerations, such as the death of a loved one. Sometimes we have been chronically injured over time, and the wounds are so deep healing seems impossible. In all case the path of healing has similarities: we may go through anger, denial, bargaining, and/or depression before we come to acceptance. But each person goes through all these differently. Even once acceptance is reached, sometimes the wound is opened back up and we may find ourselves in the anger camp again. There's no right way to walk the road of grief.

But this process HAS to happen. If it doesn't, healing can't occur. We have to allow ourselves to be angry, to be hurt, to grieve, so that we can be restored to health. I believe that is what the quote means: we have to provide ourselves opportunity to heal. It's so easy to be busy and avoid dealing with the hurts that have happened to our hearts. It's much easier to press on, to "forgive and forget" but never actually deal with the issue. Not dealing with the issue puts a small, temporary patch on the deeper pain. And when we do that, when we try to heal ourselves, it's like patching a leak in a dam with duct tape. No bueno.

While pain is uncomfortable (to put it mildly), it has to be felt and experienced before healing can occur. We have to be patient with ourselves and allow time for God to do what He does best; not just patch up, but to completely restore us to health. To use it all towards our good, to make us even better than before.

Jesus asks the man waiting by the water for 38 years in John 5:5-7 "Do you want to be well?"

I have to ask myself that, too. Do you want to be well? Will you allow the opportunity for Him to make you whole and repair your heart?

Do you have any other ways to interpret Hippocrates message in the quote above?