RIGHT AS RAIN

I went to the dentist today. Intense pain drove me there. I had been nursing a toothache for about 10 days, promising myself that one day, I would go to the dentist, but this morning, it was even painful to brush my teeth and rinse out with water, so off I went. The dentist was very gentle in himself, but the procedure wasn’t. I lay on that surgical chair; my mouth held open by all sorts of rods and pins and submitted myself to pain even more intense than the toothache I’d been battling with. As I lay there, I thought about the futility of life. ‘Did I speak to you this morning Lord’? ‘Did I mention that we’d be at the dentist today’? I forgot about embarrassments like what my breadth was like and whether or not I had left-over crumbs in my mouth. At this point, the fact that I was wearing my much treasured Cartier wrist watch didn’t matter, the drip of saliva and blood onto my Orna Farho suit was inconsequential. My new Cocinelle bag was probably on the floor somewhere and for once I didn’t care. The pain was that intense.

The only other time I had faced such intense pain and didn’t have another care in the world was when I was giving birth to my last child. For the first two, I had been a ‘Hebrew’ woman. The children popped out with amazing speed just when the pain was becoming blinding, but for my last… no such hurry. He took his time and had to be forced out after 24 hours of labour. I pulled out the braids in my hair and took off my clothes not caring about modesty at the time. I just wanted the pain to go away.

What kept me through the pain both times was the belief that this pain was only for a moment. It would be over soon and when that time came, I would be right as rain. I would have reason to rejoice. And so I submitted myself meekly to the ministrations of my dentist this morning, praying that he would be done soon and my life would be somewhat normal again. I also thought as I lay there, how Jesus was like this dentist. How many times we experience pain in life but refuse to submit to him because we are scared of the process; terrified of going through more pain before healing.

What other choice do we have then? Should we go on living at best a mediocre life and put away God’s eternal solution to our problems? Many times I wonder why He doesn’t just wave a magic wand and get us right as rain. Why does He take us through more pain to heal us? ‘For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all’. Hmmh, that’s why then.
I realized this morning, getting to the root of any issue is a painful process but also a way to ensure that the issue is dealt with definitively. When my dentist was done, he gave me some prescriptions and said ‘you may feel some soreness; take 1 tablet of Cataflam when you do and use this mouthwash morning and evening. You’ll soon be fine.

Just the same way, when God surgically and painfully deals with our issues, He also gives prescriptions:
‘Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it’ and ‘Do not forsake the assembling together of the saints’, also ‘pray without ceasing’. Whatever your challenge, let the Chief of all medical personnel take over, follow His prescriptions and you’ll soon be as right as rain. Look at me; I’m already planning to have lunch now.