One afternoon three weeks ago, I settled in the bedroom recliner to do some reading in the afternoon sunshine. A sharp sting on my neck had me out of my chair lickety-split. A wasp! The day’s warmth had awoken one of the wasps that had taken up dormant residence in our attic over the winter. By evening, the site of the sting was red and itchy and the size of a quarter.
Wasps – 1, Michele – 0.
Last week—Monday night, to be precise—I’d just snuggled in bed for a few minutes of leisure reading before lights out when I got stung again—twice. The thing stung me on my arm just below my shoulder, then crawled up to my elbow and got me again.
By Wedn
esday my arm was itchy, bright red and warm to touch from shoulder to elbow.
“We’d better go the emergency room,” I told my husband. “I think I’m having an allergic reaction.”
After two shots and a prescription for prednisone and an antihistamine, I was on my way home.
Wasps – 3, Michele – 0.
The following Thursday night I couldn’t sleep. So around 2 a.m. I decided to get up and work on my column. In the dark, I reached up to the shelf above the bed for my glasses—and got stung again, this time at the base of my ring finger. The blame thing was on my eyeglass frames. It just so happened that day at school someone told me to put ammonia on a sting.
Immediately I sprayed Windex on it, then wrapped a paper towel saturated with pure ammonia around my finger. Lo and behold, no redness or itching. (Seems the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding had something, after all.) I couldn’t even see where it got me. But it didn’t improve the score.
Wasps – 4, Michele – 0.
Those wasps are just like sin—hiding until the heat of temptation stirs it up. And sin leads to spiritual death—separation from a holy God who wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven. But God took care of the wasps of sin—by sending His Son to pay sin’s penalty—death.
On Good Friday we will remember the price He paid for us by dying in our place. And because of Easter, when He came back to life, sin and death no longer have power over the Christian. Yes, our bodies will die, unless Jesus returns first, but physical death for the child of God is simply leaving this world and being ushered into the Presence of God.
Then it will be Wasps – 0, Michele – Eternity.
"Thank You for the cross, Lord. Thank You for the price You paid, bearing all my sin and shame, in love You came and gave amazing grace. Thank You for this love, Lord. Thank You for the nail-pierced hands washed me in Your cleansing flow, so all I know Your forgiveness and embrace" (from “Worthy Is the Lamb” by Darlene Zschech). Amen.
Special-Tea: Read 1 Corinthians 15
No comments:
Post a Comment