The Whole Truth

The Whole Truth

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

John 8:32

If you ever have to go to court and give testimony here in the United States, you will be asked to swear that what you will testify to is true. The statement you will be asked to swear to goes like this: “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”

In court, it seems like a perfectly legitimate thing to do. But in life outside the courtroom, telling the whole truth is not always quite so easy. At least that’s what George found out.

When people asked George about his broken arm, he could not give a convincing explanation about how it happened. He kept muttering some story about accidentally sticking his arm through his car window, which he thought was down.

That’s the public version. In private George confessed that it happened when his wife, Donna, brought some potted plants inside that had been out on the patio all day. A garter snake had hidden in one of the pots and later slithered out across the floor where Donna spotted it.

“I was in the bathtub when I heard her scream,” George related. “I thought Donna was being murdered, so I jumped out to go help her. I was in such a hurry that I failed to even grab a towel.

“When I ran into the living room, she yelled that a snake was under the couch. I got down on my hands and knees to look for it, and my dog came up behind me and cold-nosed me. I guess I thought it was the snake, and I fainted.

“Donna thought I’d had a heart attack and called for an ambulance. I was still groggy when the ambulance arrived, so the medics lifted me onto a stretcher. When they were carrying me out, the snake came out from under the couch and frightened one of the medics so badly that he dropped his end of the stretcher.

“That’s when I broke my arm.”

Dear Father, it is not always easy to tell the whole truth, but please give me the courage to do it anyway. For I know that the truth will, ultimately, set me free. Amen.