Teflon

Photo credit: Polka Dot Images

I've been thinking about Teflon. Teflon is the gray surface on your pots and pans that makes it easier for food not to stick while you're cooking. You can put food on Teflon, and it sits there on it and cooks on it. It won't leap off the Teflon on its own, but once the food is cooked, it's easy enough to get it off of the Teflon. In theory it slides right off. (Now I'm no cook by anyone's stretch of imagination, but even I know that it's wise to spray some cooking spray stuff on there too, because the Teflon isn't always perfect, but let's ignore that elephant in the room right now. Let's pretend that Teflon is a perfect non-stick surface.)

I've also been thinking about a Bible verse. Okay, two Bible verses (one of them quotes the other one):

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
   and with his wounds we are healed.
 - Isaiah 53:5 ESV

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. - 1 Peter 2:24 ESV

I've heard about this pair of Scriptures my whole life. "In Isaiah," the story goes, "it looks at Jesus' healing provision in the present tense, as though the healing is being provided right now. When Peter quotes the prophecy, he puts it in the past tense, showing that our healing was accomplished on the Cross and we are already healed."

That certainly "preaches" when I'm at church and feel fine. It seems a little fishy, though, when I'm in bed with a fever, or throwing up something bad I ate, or suffering from some disease a doctor just told me is not healable by medical science.

So if I'm the healed already, and have been since something like 2,000 years ago when Jesus died on the Cross, how come I still can catch COVID-19?

The answer lies in Teflon. When I drop the egg in my skillet, the egg stays there. It cooks and it fries. It may ooze around the skillet a little bit, but it basically stays there. That is, it stays there UNTIL I pick up my spatula and pick the egg up. Turns out it was never stuck to the Teflon at all. At any time, it could have been removed. It was never attached. The only reason it was there was because I left it there.

When I experience sickness, I don't pretend it's not there. I don't lie and say that I'm feeling fine. I might even see a doctor if it's starting to seem serious. But I also don't give up hope when sickness looks bad. Sometimes when I don't feel good it's tough to keep from getting distracted, but I keep my eyes on Jesus. I know what He's provided for me, and I know what sticks to me and what doesn't. I look to Him as my healer, and I know that the sickness can't stick to me.

I am Teflon.