I have been sick as a dog this week and so I thought I would repost a piece I did when I started my blog many years ago. I hope your week has been better than mine and I will hope to find you next week.
Be kind.
xoxK
Part of my heart resides along Canada’s rocky eastern coast in the fair province of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is a beautiful place with a population of amazing individuals who have sea water in their veins and sticky feet that prevent them from being blown off their rock into one of the three surrounding bodies of water. They are a hearty and courageous folk. My heart is attached to the life of a thirty-something mother of three that I met about thirteen years ago. Our lives quickly fell in step and since that time, she has been family. Being Brinn’s spiritual Mum has never been an easy assignment, but it is one that I have taken as seriously as my own walk for over a decade. She has a passion for life that is matched only by her expectations of life in general. If I had to attribute a life statement to this eye catching gorgeous brunette it would be something akin to, “if you can’t fix it by prayer, blow it up and try again.” It is a continual source of joy, amazement and outright fear that I have played a part in her walk with the Lord.
Brinn is a fully functional adult with a grown up job. As a nurse, she has seen and experienced many strange and stressful situations. As a disciple of Jesus, she has walked thru many dangers, toils and snares. She knows how to pray and how to navigate the world with a violent passion. This force was stopped in its tracks a few months back by a most minuscule and unexpected foe.
The nursing mother has a myriad of enemies: influenza, lack of sleep, laundry, ineffective nursing pads, gravity and vomit. Brinn had not slept for about three days. All of her children were recovering from a nasty cold, except the little one, who had developed pneumonia. A trip to emergency had elevated her stress levels and a wicked case of mastitis had dulled her sense of humor. When her husband had to leave for a trip to Scotland, my sweet friend was holding on to her sanity with her eyelashes. When her youngest child came back from daycare with a tick in his hair, my dear friend blinked and clear lost her mind.
Ticks are not large creatures and the fact that she found the arachnid while nursing her littlest poppet, speaks to her attention to detail. Brinn could easily have removed the offending insect, she had done performed much more demanding tasks at work. But on this day, she was a completely exhausted, overwrought, lonely, sick Mummy, who momentarily lost her capacity to reason. She panicked, hopped around and set herself to praying. When she told me this on the phone, I sipped my cup of tea and laughed. Prayer first!! I had trained her well. The tick however, was clearly an unrighteous pagan who would not come in agreement with her prayers, nor detach itself from her child’s head. There was more prayer anda bit more panic. Brinn had to come up with another plan.
Plan B included telling Jesus that she was going to go outside and look for help. Outside…..in small town Nova Scotia…..in the middle of the day…..to find someone to remove an atheist tick from her baby’s hair. The minute she told me what she had done I screamed. The thought of her trolling the streets, completely overwrought looking for help did not meet my expectations of wise behavior, but I had been 4 time zones away and she didn’t ask me.
Once outside in the empty street she set to praying, “Help Lord, please help….” There was no one about, so she modified plan B and started going house to house knocking on doors in search for a hero.
After some minutes and no replies, she saw a couple out for a walk. Brinn didn’t hesitate; she gathered her brood and headed after them. “Excuse me,” she said approaching them, “have you lived here a while? I have a problem.” She went on, “my little guy has a tick in his hair, I don’t’ know how to remove it, my husband is away and…” at this point she broke down completely and started sobbing hysterically. “You didn’t!!” I gasped in disbelief as she was recounting the story. “I did!” Brinn declared laughing. “But what did they do?” I yelled, trying to envision what on earth a couple was going to make of such a scene. “Well,” she went on, “they were very nice. The man said he knew exactly what to do. He took us to the house and went and got these great tweezers. He took the tick out of his hair and his wife…” “What did she do?” I asked, trying to imagine what was coming next. “Well she went into the kitchen and made everyone ice cream cones. We just hung out in their yard eating ice cream.” “You have got to be kidding,” I said more to myself than to her. “Yah,” Brinn said pleasantly, “God sent them. They were super sweet.”
And so Dear Friend,
Are you at the end of your ability to cope? Were you doing a fabulous job enduring until “one small thing” has finally caused you to come to the end of yourself? Have you, like my sweet Brinn found yourself utterly outclassed by the situation before you? Cry out to your God. He hears you and He will come to your aid. Even if you have to stand on an empty street until help arrives, hang on, help is almost there. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Psalm 34:19 The Lord will come to your aid. He loves you. He will deliver you at the right time. He will arrive to help you. And if you are very lucky He might just be driving an ice cream truck.
Make sure to check for insects before you come indoors,
KB
