Sink your Teeth Into

My daughter has about one month home from college for Christmas.  When she was home this past summer, she informed me before she went back that her wisdom teeth had been bothering her.  Danae seems to often have one thing or another "bothering" her.  She needed to see a nose specialist when she was 15 because she thought her nose had been broken as a toddler when she took a pretty bad tumble.   Her hands turn purple and we needed to have that checked out, a "beauty" mark we had to be sure was merely cosmetic.  An ingrown toe nail.  She wore glasses as a kid...  Braces twice to correct minor imperfections and now it's looking like something needs to be done again to straighten teeth, give me strength.  But, thanks be to God of course that all of these things have been very small.  She has been such a healthy baby, little kid, young lady.  Like I said, thanks be to God.

But today she had to have those wisdom teeth surgically removed.  I can sort of relate because I did have various dental work done over the years, but wisdom teeth?  They do not exist in me, I'm told that is highly unusual.  But this post is about Danae.  So to continue in that vein,  Danae was whisked off to the doctor's office this morning.

We had received a call that "Diane" could not eat anything after midnight.  For someone with an unusual name like my daughter's, you just never know what she is going to be called.  A teacher she once had called her Dange all of the time, that was pretty funny.  Anyway, this morning Danae asked if she could have some water and I told her to go ahead.  Ut oh.  We arrive at office and we slip in under that wire, the doctor said he'd go ahead and remove the teeth with the water in her system.  Just the day prior he turned down someone who had a glass of orange juice that morning.  What is the spritual lesson in this?  Beats me.

The kid was a trooper, woke up after the surgery giggling.  This is supposedly unusual, most teens wake up wailing.  Again, thanks be to God.

I find again that I like taking care of her.  Bringing her pudding, providing the gauze-changing supplies.  It's been a while, you see, since I've had to see to her.  I love nurturing my own child.  Quite magnificent, though I am sad she had to go through this.  She should be "good to go" before Christmas, thanks be to God.  Not swollen, thanks be to God.  The fee was high, thanks be to God because Jehovah is Provider.  In home group, my friend Laurie said a special prayer about all of this.

The wisdom in this is that mostly when we are in pain the Lord manifests Himself as the Nurturer, the Care-Giver, seeing to us with tender loving care.  We're never too old for that, and it's something we can sink our teeth into.