When you receive the Seal you will understand the importance of recovery from disease and trauma. Researchers are now finding a way to help people walk again after they have had a spinal-cord injury.

When the spinal cord is hurt the signals sent by the brain to control walking are blocked. Until now medical science has believed that the only way to repair this damage is to restore the same nerves that were originally connected.

Now a study shows that the nerves can follow new routes when the old ones are cut off. This gives the promise that people who have hurt their spinal cord--and have been told they will never walk again--will be able to walk.

When the nerves inside the spinal canal are hurt it blocks the signals from the brain that command the body to act. That usually happens when the vertebral column is hurt.

The brain will be able to command the body as far down as the injury but no farther below it. This is why many people with a spinal-cord injury can not walk--their legs are beneath their spine no matter where they were injured.

And of course there is hope also for people with spinal-cord injuries that happened higher up the spine. They experience paralysis in more of their body. Now ways can be developed that they can move their arms and hands as well as their legs.

Dr Michael Sofroniew, a professor at UCLA, was the chief author of the study, which was published in the January issue of the journal Nature Medicine. He describes the findings with this metaphor:

The nerves between the brain cells and the lowest end of the spinal cord are like freeways you drive on. When there is a traffic accident all the traffic gets backed up. It seems to stop.

But if you really need to get where you are going on time, you get off the freeway at the closest exit and take a side street. Normally that side street would not be convenient but when there is an accident it is the only way through.

The detour is slower and not as "direct" but it still allows the driver to get to the destination. This can happen with your spinal-cord nerves also. The pathway can be redirected through undamaged nerves, keeping something similar to the original connection.

It would be like driving through side-streets all the way to your distant destination. It is not going to be the same quick, efficient experience of driving freely on the interstate. But it is better than not getting where you are going at all.

Signals from the brain are also able to take detours and "side-street" nerves until they ultimately reach their destination. That means ultimately those people who can not walk today will be able to walk again.

"When I was a medical student, my professors taught that the brain and spinal cord were hard-wired at birth and could not adapt to damage. Severe injury to the spinal cord meant permanent paralysis," said Sofroniew.

"This pessimistic view has changed over my lifetime, and our findings add to a growing body of research showing that the nervous system can reorganize after injury," he added.

When you are sealed you will understand the importance of recovery. You will most likely have recovered from something traumatic or perhaps a bad habit you once could not break but now have been able to.

God will give you the ability to break bad habits and to recover from all kinds of accidental injuries too. Now researchers are giving God a little help in promising you recovery that was never before believed possible. It is possible when you receive the Seal.