Yesterday after school Ryan mentioned that he had gotten something in his eye during football practice. (I know; it’s March, but it is also Texas.) He complained about it intermittently, but our attempts to flush it out didn’t work. At about 11 pm it was really bothering him. He was able to suffer through the night and first thing this morning we went to the optometrist. By this time he was in a lot of pain and it was hard for him to even open his eye. We waited in the room for twenty long minutes; I’m sure longer for him than for me. You know, the part of parenthood where you have to deal with snotty teens isn’t fun, but infinitely worse is the part when your child, at any age, is suffering.
Finally, the doctor came in and was able to remove the foreign object. Ryan was so relieved. He thanked the doctor repeatedly. The doctor did comment that Ryan seemed to handle the pain well, he said most people with that problem are “on their hands and knees.” He mentioned that there are more nerves in the cornea than the back.
At home Ryan said, “That was so bad, every time I blinked. Dr. Marsh is my savior today.” He didn’t mean it in a sacrilegious way, but I couldn’t help consider the parallel. I wish that one little speck of sin could cause such discomfort so we wouldn’t sin as much, repent quickly, and appreciate the real Savior more.
And not to take anything away from the suffering of the Son, but the Father suffered too that night.
2 comments:
Wouldn't it be great if our beams hurt?
Your story reminds me of a general conference talk by Jeffrey Holland, I think, where he describes the Father hiding in some far off corner of the universe to avoid the tremendous suffering His Son had to endure so that we could be saved from the affects of sin.
Amen Jamie!
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