Firsts

Welcome to my very first blog post!

I aim to post on an inspirational theme at least every fortnight. Other topics might also include writing and book extracts. I’d love you to join me on this journey.

Experiencing, or doing, things for the first time can be nerve-racking, can’t it?   Do you remember some of the firsts in your life?

• Your first day at a new school, or worse still, a new job?
• Your first driving lesson?
• Your first crush? First kiss?
• Your first rejection, or first success?
• The birth of your first baby?

I’ll never forget the first intramuscular injection I administered as a student nurse.

I went to the patient’s bedside, along with the supervising staff nurse, and explained to the gentleman what I was going to do. The patient was hesitant. “Is this your first time nurse?” he said, whilst turning over on to his side.

“Oh no!” the staff nurse exclaimed, before I had a chance to reply. “Nurse has given dozens of injections before.”

Thankfully the man couldn’t see the look of surprise on my face as he lowered his pyjama trousers just enough for me to do the deed. I held the needle-topped syringe in my right hand, while drawing an imaginary grid on his flesh with the left, to ensure I was aiming for the correct position. And with the precision of an award-winning dart-thrower the needle found its mark, piercing skin and sliding deep into the muscle, where I then delivered the necessary medication.

With a few deep breaths and reassuring comments, I carefully withdrew said instrument of torture. The giving of my first injection was over! And the subsequent few thousand were a breeze!

The patient’s reaction? “It’s easy to see you’ve done that before nurse.” He complimented, straightening himself up in the bed. “You can do it again anytime.”

Once out of earshot, the staff nurse and I burst into fits of laughter. “Why did you tell him I’d given loads of injections before?” I asked.

“Well, you have,” she replied, pointing to an extremely damaged orange. “He didn’t need to know it was a piece of fruit you’ve been practicing on!”

The memories of ‘firsts’ in our lives have the power to rekindle a mix of emotions as we retrieve them from the filing cabinets of our minds. Some will undoubtedly bring great joy, while others might very well re-awaken sadness or fear. But they do not have to define who we are today.

We are more than the illness we might carry around in our bodies; more than the person widowed or abandoned; more than the mother who has buried a child. Our lives are an intricate tapestry of experiences and emotions, making us the precious individuals we are today.

Even the ‘firsts’ in our lives, especially the ones we’d rather forget, can be transformed, because God offers us a ‘first’ like no other. For we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away (even the shaky ‘firsts’); behold all things have become new.” (Italics mine)

That’s a ‘first’ I also remember in my life. When I was a teenager, I let Christ do His re-creating work in my heart, and make me new. Now that is a life defining ‘first’, one that is available to whomever chooses to experience it.

What are some of the ‘firsts’ that readily come to your mind?

August 2015