Jul 08
23
Germs
Posted by Stephen23
Tags: faith, health, obedience
I asked Daniel to come brush his teeth. It was bedtime, and he came along cheerfully with no objections. He was in the middle of telling me an involved story, and once Daniel gets talking he forgets himself, forgets to object about going to bed, forgets everything except the story. Single-minded.
Anyway, on the way to the bathroom Debbie called out that Micah needed his diaper changed, so I scooped up the baby and deposited him on the change table. No problem for Daniel. He stood by the change table and continued his story without missing a beat.
In due course I finished changing Micah and lifted him down to the floor, and he toddled off to his toys. Daniel was still in his story and had forgotten we’d been on our way to brush his teeth. To get him back on track, I said I’d wash my hands and then we’d brush teeth. I wasn’t sure he’d heard me, so I reached out and took his hand to lead him toward the bathroom. Immediately Daniel shook his hand violently, pulling away. I was taken by surprise. He’d been in such good spirits, not objecting to the bedtime routine at all. Unprompted, he enlightened me:
“You’ve got germs on your hands, Daddy, from changing Micah! They’ll get on my hands!”
Unclean! Unclean! I was temporarily outcast. At least, my hands were.
I washed my hands and all was well. I brushed Daniel’s teeth. Smiles and sunshine.
I thought about it later after he was tucked into bed. Amazing the grasp that small boy has on germ theory. The way infection is spread. How essential hand-washing is to good health. Germ theory was first proposed in 1835, but wasn’t widely accepted until the late 19th century. Hospital mortality rates from childbirth went from 30% to less than 2% when doctors started to wash their hands between patients. Although the idea that germs caused disease had been stated and studied, it took another fifty years to convince the medical establishment to implement the simple procedure of washing your hands before examining a patient. Fifty years of unnecessary suffering and death. And my four-year-old son knew exactly how important it was to wash your hands.
In fact, it was such an important concept that it immediately broke through his story-telling reverie, urgently interrupting his train of thought to exclaim, “Danger, Will Robinson!” That’s good. It’s a mind-set and habit that will significantly contribute to a healthy life.
It got me thinking about all the laws God wrote down for the Israelites as they set out for the promised land. We’re familiar with the ten commandments, but there were hundreds of other laws pertaining to worship (pretty obvious why God would give those kinds of laws), to relationships (also quite essential), to farming, cooking, and even clothing and construction. Some of it was quite obscure and non-intuitive, and I always wondered how on earth would the poor people remember all that stuff, so detailed and wide-ranging. Daniel’s complete understanding and acceptance of germ theory, right down to the subconscious level, gave me an inkling as to how God’s laws could have been followed by Israel of old.
It was possible when the rules governing life, health, happiness and a right relationship with God were deeply embedded in everyone’s mind, starting from infancy. No wonder God said to tie these words of the law to your hands, to your head. To talk about them when you woke up, when you went to bed. To discuss them morning, noon and night. Drill them in deep. Then they become an integral part of life, acted on without even having to think about it.
Believers no longer live in the age of law. We’re not bound by rules that prohibit socks made with a poly-cotton blend. Instead we live by grace, through faith in the Son of God. It’s Jesus death and resurrection that bring us to God, not strict adherence to a list of rules. Nevertheless, Jesus gave us plenty of commands: Love God above all else. Love your neighbour. Love your enemy and do good to those who hate you. Give to those in need. Jesus said, If you love me you will do what I command.
Maybe you live a perfect Christian life, but I spend way more time not obeying those commands than I do even thinking about them. And there’s the problem. I’d be much more likely to follow Jesus’ instructions if they were drummed into me all day every day. We make our kids wash their hands before meals, after going to the toilet, after coming in from outside, every single time. Imagine if we made them apply some version of “do good to others” on every single interaction they had with another person. That we applied a specific Biblical command, the correct chapter and verse. We’d have to know the Bible inside out. We’d have to know how to apply it. We’d have to be diligent in teaching it. They say that between the ages of 3 and 6 children get into conflict on average every six minutes. Imagine applying a spiritual wash-your-hands to every such incident.
I’m not saying it’s practical given our current lifestyle and casual approach to things spiritual. But what if we lived differently? Countless people died before the idea of hand-washing caught on. How many people will die spiritually before we apply spiritual hygiene to every incident of contamination by sin? How will we ourselves not die a thousand spiritual deaths?
