I never actually saw the X Ray but the doctor assured me that the finger was broken, well chipped actually, somewhere around the knuckle. I knew something was wrong for you just don't get that sort of excruciating pain unless the damage is severe. Anyway, they plastered me from fingertip to elbow, a bit excessive I thought, though now they probably wouldn't do much more than put a splint around it and throw me a few painkillers. The cast stayed on for weeks and when it came off, my finger that had been bent across the palm of my hand all that time, took ages to work properly again and you know I can still feel a weakness in it thirty years later. So much for medical knowledge when I was a kid but I guess progress always highlights the mistakes of the past! Still, if it hadn't been for the good old X Ray machine and William Rontgen they might never have found out the cause of my pain though it is always a little disconcerting that while X Rays are so essential to diagnosis, everyone always leaves the room only the patient when the machine is switched on! Mind you, I have looked at many an X Ray slide since and more often than not I haven't the first clue what I'm looking at or meant to see. I guess it takes a lot of practice and a highly trained eye to interpret those sheets properly and I'm sure occasionally they get it wrong. I remember on one occasion, when I was just out of my teens, going in to see my doctor for a routine examination after a bout of flu only for him to tell me, in confidence, that my mum's recent chest X Ray showed a serious shadow over one lung that looked extremely sinister. I really didn't hear his attempt at comforting words that followed, including 'Just keep it to yourself until we get a second opinion,' for by that stage I was already thinking all sorts of scenarios and inwardly dissolving into a weakened state. Admittedly, I did as he suggested but strangely, he never contacted me again and some weeks later when I decided to enquire from mum as to the results of her X Ray, she informed me that it was completely clear. To this day, I've no idea whether someone in the clinic had made a huge error that had been rectified on second examination or God had answered the prayers that I had offered up and put the whole thing right.
Most people have been through an X Ray or have been with someone who has. It's a fairly straight forward principle at the end of the day in that X Rays tend to pass more easily through soft tissues and are generally blocked or hindered by more dense tissues such as bone. So when the radiographer looks at his 'picture' he sees black areas where the X Rays have penetrated through organs and muscles and light areas where the Rays have been stopped. In this way he or she can quickly have an image of anything that appears out of the ordinary. Sometimes they may even use other chemicals such as Barium which act in the same way as dense tissues and so can create 'pictures' inside organs and blood vessels. Even if you haven't made it under an X Ray machine you may have had your hand luggage checked in much the same way at an airport so the X Ray machine has many uses beyond the medical. Still it is possible that even though it can 'see' right inside us, it might miss something very important.
That's something which God just doesn't do. The Psalmist writes in chapter 139, 'You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar' and he goes on to write 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.' We also read in Psalm 44 that 'he knows the secrets of the heart.' God doesn't need an X Ray machine to know what we are like inside both in our physical, mental and spiritual state and I guess most of us know what he is likely to find when he looks at us too. But how strange that although we heed the X Ray machine and its findings, when God looks into our innermost beings, too often we are quite prepared to decline His offer of help. It doesn't take an X Ray to see the sin that affects our lives but it will always leave a shadow until we find the cure at the cross.
