Yahweh, Breath of God.
At the end of July, my girls and I went with my sister and two of her kids to the Frio River in southeast Texas to camp and float the river. Floating the river is a long-standing Texas tradition. You get in an innertube and just let the river current take you downstream. You pack food and drinks for the day, and you just bask in the sun and float away.
After a few days of hot sun and cool water, we were packing up to go home. My 16-year-old daughter and I were hitching the trailer to my Tahoe, and I wasn’t paying enough attention to what we were doing. My right index finger got caught, and I couldn’t move it. My daughter tried her hardest to help, but I couldn’t communicate in anything but screams. I made a movement with my left hand to move the trailer. In her effort to free me, she pushed when I needed her to pull. The end result was half of my fingertip being severed off. Through cussing and screaming, I immediately found paper towels to wrap around my finger, gripping tightly to stop the blood flow. We found my fingertip on the ground and put it on ice. The 20-minute trip to the hospital was the longest of my life.
Once at the hospital, X-rays confirmed that I had indeed amputated about half of my distal phalanx. The orthopedic surgeon on call said that in order to preserve as much length on my finger, it would be best to let it heal instead of trying to reattach the fingertip surgically. Obviously, I was skeptical of this prognosis, but the next day, I got an emergency appointment at the leading hand specialist in my large hometown. He agreed with the orthopedic that we should let it heal instead of surgical reattachment. My doctor told me to clean it and apply ointment to it twice a day, then to keep it wrapped up.
Every day and every morning, as I cleaned and dressed my finger, I would pray over it. I would whisper, “Yahweh.” In Exodus, Moses asks God what his name is. God responds with YHWH, or Yahweh. Prior to this, God had referred to Himself as “El Shaddai,” meaning God Almighty. While there is much significance to the names God reveals of Himself, YHWH had piqued my interest with my finger becoming amputated.
If the breath of God can speak the universe into existence, then that same power can heal my finger. Within three months, my finger had mostly healed and pretty much regenerated itself. The skin regrew all the way back over the tip of my finger. There is still some loss of sensation, as well as my fingernail curving over, but it healed, and it’s barely noticeable anymore. My right index finger is only about a quarter of an inch shorter than my left. However, I give all the glory to God for healing me. Yahweh—the breath of God—spoken over my finger daily. I can call upon the name of God—Yahweh—and He can heal a finger.
