Genesis 2: 21-23
Imagine surgery before the days of anesthesia. Patients were strapped down while scalpel and saw cut through tissue and bone; every slice and turn of the knife causing unimaginable pain.
One physician determined to do something about it. Sir James Young Simpson practiced medicine in Scotland. He became senior president of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh when he was only twenty-four, and in time, received virtually every possible honor and position. He dreamed of finding a way to put patients asleep during surgery. On Monday evenings, he would periodically invite small groups of physicians to his home to experiment with chemicals, crystals, and powders, which when placed over a burning brazier, the doctors would inhale the fumes. Nothing worked until November 4, 1847. One of the men had purchased a crystal called chloroform in Paris. As the doctors sniffed the burning substance, they fell to the floor, unconscious.
Simpson had his answer, but he soon encountered another problem. He was attacked by Christians who claimed that pain was a God-ordained part of life. Freedom from pain comes only in heaven, and it is immoral to devise dangerous ways of escaping it on earth. Simpson went to the Scriptures, seeking answers. He no sooner had opened his Bible when he came to the verse, “And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.” His critics were silenced, and a new day dawned in medical history.
Aren’t you glad you know the Great Physician, and that we can trust him to operate on our hearts to conform us to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ?
Blessings to you this March and Always,
Pastor John