Lumber was constantly reused on the farm. Something always needed to be built or repaired.
As boys, it was our job to pull out all the old bent nails. Sometimes the lumber would lay around before we got to it. Worse yet, sometimes the nails would be sticking up.
I’m not sure how many times I stepped on nails but one time I remember specifically. It seemed to be about four inches long and went right through my work boot and up into the arch of my foot. It was deep and it hurt! Fortunately there was no infection, just a lot of pain and limping for a while.
This is the only experience I have ever had that could vaguely help me understand the crucifixion. My piercing was but for a second. Christ hung on a cross, fastened by spikes through His wrists and feet, for nine hours.
Psalm 33:16 says, “…They pierced my hands and my feet.”
After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and said, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.” (Luke 24:39-40).
It has been rightly said, “The only thing in heaven that will be man-made are the wounds in His hands and feet.” How sad, yet how true.
“And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” (Zechariah 13:6).
The songwriters W. G. Ovens and Gladys Roberts wrote:
“Wounded for me, wounded for me,
There on the Cross He was wounded for me;
Gone my transgressions, and now I am free,
All because Jesus was wounded for me.”
