Jesus – IV

Throughout my life, I’ve experienced many medical treatments, tests, and surgeries, but one of the most common “accessories” that follow almost every patient is an IV pole. This pole carries all your monitors that keep track of your heart rate, medicines, and bags filled with saline that keeps you hydrated. Each has a role in keeping you functioning and sets you up well for whatever you’re about to go into and recover from. Most people know what an IV is but must understand how each piece plays a role in what is given to them. Today, I want to write about each piece and how the Lord pieced together this understanding of his miraculous steps. We often need to remember its importance.

An IV is described as an “Existing or taking place within” or “To administer into” (Intravenous)

When reading the full name of what an IV does, I thought of God because He intervenes in our lives daily, but sometimes, we don’t see all of the details within us. He exists within and has taken our place on the cross. When He speaks to us, He is “Administering” truth, love, grace, compassion, and all we need to continue recovering from past hurts or scars. He wants to heal us fully.

(Ad-minister: When He is ministering to us, he adds something missing to our hearts.)

An IV Pole:
Something so necessary but often overlooked is the pole that holds everything so you can freely move around and get from place to place during your stay. That is the foundation of our hearts. We can carry our bags, tubes, and medicines with this pole. This foundational pole is necessary for there to be a reason or desire to keep moving forward with all that to carry around. With God as a steady foundation, we can manage all that is happening around us; within that, we have freedom from bondage and baggage. Nothing can hold us back from our recovery if we keep Him centered.

Saline Bags:
This is a special kind of water with chloride mixed in it, making it safe to flow through our veins. You will receive this daily, and it can help you stay hydrated and keep your medicines flowing throughout your body without taking them orally. The saline reminds me of how the word of God should flow through us. Without this constant flow of life-giving words of encouragement, joy, and hope, we get dry inside and forget the living water. He gives us living saline to reach others who need refreshment in their hearts. You cannot give what you do not have, and an example of that is you cannot provide a transfusion to save someone if your blood is weak or you are malnourished. Are you staying hydrated during your recovery to prepare for what lies ahead to keep fighting those moments?

Dip Chamber:
This small piece between your saline bag and the connection to your tubing has a significant role in your body. It delivers a combination of saline, vitamins, and electrolytes, not your body to get nutrients and energy. This part of the IV reminded me of how the Holy Spirit moves on our behalf, and there are two ways to see how it works.

1.) Saline = God’s Word
Vitamins = Our Worship
Electrolytes = Holy Spirit

Saline is what you need daily and should flow throughout your life.
Some people choose to take vitamins or not, just like we choose to worship or not. But when we allow them into our lives, they repair deep inner missing wounds or lack of response. Sometimes, we don’t know what we need until we pay attention to our “body” or our posture of the heart.
Electrolytes give transmissions (Hold mission in your mind) and impulses to muscles and nerves. The Holy Spirit helps us receive transmissions or impulsive actions to what God calls us to do and act on. It transforms what might have started as a feeling, not action, and becomes a passion for God to use in our lives. The mission or calling that gives us that boost of energy to try something we wouldn’t naturally do on our understanding.

2.)
The drip chamber only allows so much liquid into the chamber, and with that, the drips drop slowly into the saline mainstream. This is the part we want more of to get back to “normal,” but God intended for us to receive the goodness throughout the process we are faced with. What would be the point of the other parts if we could have the drip as our saline? Little drops by little drops, God is giving the saline, vitamins, and electrolytes to continue on the road to full recovery, but we couldn’t handle all of it at once because our bodies would reject thatch, and we would no longer need a three in one. (All Three Listed Above) Although it feels like it’s in slow motion, your body receives all the tiny drops and turns them into strength. I remember when I was recovering from a major surgery, the nurses had given me a little remote that had one button that was supposed to provide me with some extra pain meds if I needed it, but in my mind, it was supposed to give me all “I” needed or felt like I needed because I was hurting so much. Most of the time, I would get very frustrated because my body was saying I needed more pain medication, but once I had used the dosage I was allowed, it would lock the little button to make sure I wouldn’t overdose. Thinking of this story, I remember the physical agony I was in, and sometimes I think we feel the agony more when we don’t feel a soliton or it doesn’t come as quickly as we hope. It takes time for the medication to work, and although God can do everything, sometimes He asks us to endure and press into him and not rely on instant relief. God never gives us more than we can handle, and just like the chamber gives us what we need, so does our heavenly father.

The Tubing:
This one is the simplest to remember.
One Tube
One Liquid Inside
One Way (Jesus)

You still have a choice to trust in the process, but there is one way to receive Jesus: believing in your foundation (Pole), Believing in His words (Saline Bag), Receiving from the drip, surrendering our wants, and trusting Him with our needs.

Needle/Cannula Tube:
We’ve listed so many little details; the last two things are just as crucial because they are the first things you need to begin this recovery process. To receive all those things, we must go through pain. Everyone’s least favorite part is the needle that must be introduced to our sensitive veins. The smell of alcohol prep pads always reminds me of what is to come and the thing I’m about to walk into, like surgery. I have the most minor veins, so I’m always a hard person to stick to! I am sorry to all my nurses who I ever made feel insecure about their profession and all the practice sticking people because little did you know you’d be getting a challenge today! We all have memories of our hurts and pains, which we don’t want to face, but didn’t Jesus feel the same way? Didn’t he experience pain in similar ways…

The prayer in the garden to prepare…
The temptation to quit and walk away…
The nails into his wrist…

But there is hope… Where there is pain flows healing.
The pain is necessary to receive the healing and true understanding of who God is.

Once the needle pinch has pierced your vein, the needle is no longer needed, and the pain vanishes. The only thing left in your hand is called a “Cannula,” once it’s inside, the flow begins. When we decide to receive Jesus, He is the one who takes our pains and struggles and carries them for us, just like our pole. He gives hydration and words of hope through saline to flow within us so we never doubt what may come because it never changes. The drip chamber gives us the three in one, and through all three, we learn that he has us in every area, even when we don’t feel the change in the process. When we are connected to God (Tubing), we are reminded that he is our provider and our one way. We can be reminded that even though the journey may start painfully like the needle, He’s got us inside and out (Cannula), and through the pain, He is about to show us how painful moments can bring beautiful flow.