Raisins

When my son was about four years old, he did the unexpected! Don't all kids do that at one point or another. I was working part-time at the time, cleaning a few houses a week. I had just gotten off of work and went to pick him up at his Mi-Mi's house. We chatted for a few moments about his day and what he ate, how he napped, and what-not. I walked outside and began strapping him into his carseat to head home. When all of a sudden, I noticed something black and red in his left ear. I unbuckled him and took him out of the carseat, to take a closer look. There was something large in his ear, but I couldn't make out what it was. I quickly brought him inside and his MiMi and I began taking a closer look with a flashlight. As I began picking at whatever it was in his ear, not knowing at the time, I noticed the more I messed with it, that it began to bleed. I knew this was not a good sign. I grabbed some tweezers and pulled out a....you won't believe it....a bloody raisin. Yep. I said raisin! I could see more blackness and more blood still in his ear canal. I grabbed him and rushed him to the ENT.

When we arrived, I showed the doctor the bloody raisin and she chuckled. Apparently she had seen worse. Never raisins, but definitely worse. She took out her ear scope and put on her forehead light thingy. She pulled out one raisin. Then another. Then another. And yes...one more. A total of FIVE raisins. With each raisin, his ear bled more. I feared the worst...that he had punctured his eardrum with a dog-gone raisin.

After removing all of the raisins, she could see that his entire ear was highly infected. His ear was full of blood and puss from a bad infection. She irrigated it several times and suctioned it too many times to count. We had to return three different times after that, for her to irrigate and suction again. Nothing like hearing your child belt out blood curdling screams while myself and two nurses held him down, while the doctor irrigated and suctioned. Each time got worse, because he knew what was coming. I know it was what he needed, but I heard those screams in my sleep for a couple of weeks after.

Your probably asking yourself...why on earth did he stick raisins in his ear? Well...let me tell you, he wasn't offering any information. Poor thing probably thought we might stick him in the chair at the ENT and interrogate him with torture, if he spoke a word about it. We, the doctor and I, suspected that he stuffed them in there, to somehow soothe himself from the horrible ear infection. He soothed the pain with stuffing raisins in his ear. He somehow thought that they would make it go away. And who knows...it might have helped with the pain, but only hid the infection underneath...where it grew and grew. The funny thing is, he never ran fever or even complained about an earache. This...and a couple of other incidences in the future, would prove that he had a large tolerance for pain...which is not always a good thing. The doctor had heard about kids doing that before...but never with raisins. Hot dog weiners...yes. But not raisins. He was the first...of course he was!

Needless to say...he stayed on antibiotics for three long weeks. His ear cleared up like new, and I kept raisins from him for a few months...just to be safe. He is eight years old now and in the third grade. He probably wouldn't even remember the incident if I were to bring it up to him. All is well with his ears. No long term damage. I was reminded of this story the other day. It's funny how things from long ago will pop up out of nowhere sometimes. When I began remembering I couldn't help but laugh out loud. It's funny now. But, it wasn't then. Not at all.

It made me think of how many times in my life, I tried to soothe my pain...with something that didn't do me any good at all. It never stopped the pain. It never fixed what was wrong. It never healed the infection growing inside of me. It only stopped it up for a little while, until it grew so big that it would burst right out of me. I'm speaking of emotional pain. One of the worst pains that a human can experience. It effects your heart, your mind, your actions, your spirit and your soul. It consumes you...leaving you infected from the inside out. I've done this countless times, using something artificial to fix my hurt. Only covering up the pain...one raisin at a time.

The only true antibiotic for emotional pain is love. The Bible says in I Peter 4:8 that "Love covers a multitude of sins". That's where emotional pain comes from, a sin committed against you, or a sin that you committed against yourself. That pure, healing love can only come from one place...Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate fix for any pain you and I may be feeling. Drugs won't fix it. Alcohol won't fix it. Promiscuity won't fix it. Anger and hatred won't fix it. Isolation from others won't fix it. Ignoring it...won't fix it. These are all just a hand full of raisins that will only cause your life to become more infected. But, grabbing all of your pain into your arms, and walking towards Jesus, and laying them at His feet...will bring you healing. If you trust HIM enough to give HIM your pain, HE will remove it bit by bit. Leaving you with a healing like nothing on earth can. Miraculous healing. Lasting healing. Permanent healing. Loving healing. And eventually HE will cause that pain to fade from your memory, only popping up here and there to remind you where HE brought you from. John 10:10 says, "He came so that we may have life and have it more abundantly". Abundance means "plenty", "more than enough". HE wants to give us a life of freedom from pain and with an abundance of love and healing from HIM!

I invite you today...to surrender your pain over to the Healer...Jesus. Cry out to God so your healing can begin. Allow HIM to come into your life and irrigate your heart, your circumstance, and your pain...and bring peace and joy everlasting! There aren't enough "raisins" in this world to soothe you like HE can.

Psalm 91:2 He is my refuge, my place of safety, he is my God, and I trust him.

Exodus 15:26...I am the Lord, who heals you.

Psalms 119:169 May my cry come before you, O Lord; give me understanding according to your wisdom.

Psalm 40:2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

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