Blessings in Strange Packages

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever needed something, I mean really been in need, and when the anticipated package arrived you wanted to send it packing? Your answer was packaged in such a way that it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with what you were requesting.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

This is Mama on Mother’s Day,surrounded by her eight children, six weeks before she died. We were celebrating her day in the nursing home. Mama had suffered numerous strokes and had just been diagnosed with cancer. Her health had rapidly declined, pain had set in, and the goal was to keep her comfortable. She had times of clarity but often she was confused. My role in Mama’s life had morphed from daughter, to care giver, to mother figure.

One afternoon I walked into her room and she was sitting up in bed chewing on the cord to the nurse’s call button. She looked like a toddler teething. Having had five toddlers I realized that her teeth must be hurting. I gently lifted her lip and shuddered. Her tooth had rotted. Mama needed a dentist ASAP.

Since this nursing home didn’t have a dentist and her dentist of forty years was out of town, I called my dentist – who also happens to be a great friend – and asked if he could help us. Greg is a wonderful dentist, a godly man, and full of compassion. He graciously consented to come to the nursing home around 7:00 to extract the tooth. The catch was that he would be on his way to a softball game and would need to come dressed in his uniform. His daughter would be with him so that she could hand him the instruments. My job was to help hold Mama’s mouth open. I was so relieved that Mama would be out of pain (at least from her tooth) that I didn’t care how he was dressed or who helped.

Oh, but Mama cared.

Picture this: Mama is lying in a nursing home bed, in pain because of her tooth. In walks a very tall man clad in a softball uniform. By his side is his eleven year old assistant. He looks like he should have a chaw of tobacco and shouting something like, “Good eye! Good eye!” Instead of donning a ball mitt he proceeds to put on surgical gloves. He gently addresses Mama and asks if he can look at her tooth. Mama’s eyes become round saucers but she nods her head. While I’m assuring her that Dr. Hughes is an excellent dentist, softball guy begins to lay out his dental equipment and a pixie of a girl slips on her own surgical gloves. When Greg pulls out the hypodermic needle poor Mama just couldn’t take it any more. She starts to hyperventilate. Her eyes search for understanding; looking first at the ball player then at the little assistant and finally at me. “Nancy!”, she pants, “I need a DENTIST!”

No matter what I said, Mama’s mind could not wrap itself around the truth that Greg was Dr. Hughes, dentist extraordinaire. He just didn’t look the part. In her mind some guy had walked in off the ball field with a little girl in tow and had the nerve to pull her tooth. And to top it all off, I had allowed it to happen. She was mad – AT ME.

I guess I’m not much different from Mama. For instance, I recognize how “un-Christlike” I can be. Many times I’ve closed my eyes and lifted my face toward heaven to sing -

“To be like Jesus
To be like Jesus
All I ask- to be like Him
All through life’s journey
From earth to glory
All I ask- to be like Him.”

Really? Because when the Lord hears my cry and sends me into the refining fire I’m looking for the fire extinguisher rather than letting the fire extract the rotten dross of selfishness, conditional love, unrighteous anger, and pride. When I’m asking the Lord to teach me to trust Him it comes in strange wrappings: rebellious children, illness, rocky relationships, financial problems…. It’s hard to recognize these trials as God’s instruments, fashioned by Him, to do exactly what I’d asked, to make me more like His Son.

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” I Peter 4:12-13 (KJV)