As part of my quest to understand God’s love and grace more I’ve been reading Song of Solomon, or as it is also known, the Song of Songs. I also want to really grasp that I am not a slave, but God’s beloved bride.
Imagine you are lost in a forest. You are getting hot, tired and hungry. You forgot to bring food with you and you ran out of water a while ago. Then you come to a little clearing and there in the middle of the forest is an apple tree. It is loaded with big beautiful apples. What would you do? Well if you really are hot, tired and hungry and are a normal person, without tooth trouble, you would pick one of those big juicy apples and sit down and enjoy it. If you are like me and your dentist told you a long time ago not to bite into a whole apple, you might have to get out your handy pocket knife and cut it up first. I don’t actually carry a pocket knife, in case you are wondering, but these are spiritual apples under a figurative apple tree. So eat up.
In chapter 3 verse 2 of SOS that is just what the bride did. She says Her lover, that is our Savior, is like that apple tree. The other trees of the forest had nothing to offer her. But, “In his shade I took great delight and sat down, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
I want to be like her and remember in the heat of the day to sit down and enjoy some moments with Jesus.
Speaking of tooth trouble, last evening at the start of dinner I started having a lot of pain in one of my teeth! I felt nearly sick and broke out in a sweat. I somehow managed to stay vertical and eat something but I had to chew very slowly and only on the other side of my mouth. Getting to sleep later was also challenging.
I was able to eat breakfast without any problem this morning so that was encouraging. But it was soft food and there’s been a dull ache in my jaw and surrounding area most of the morning. So I didn’t procrastinate as I usually do and went ahead and called my dentist this morning. I’m glad I did because they said he will be out of the office for two weeks after today.
I have little hope that the news will be good. This tooth has already had two “root canals” (technically all teeth have root canals but I am using the term in the popular sense to refer to the treatment where they go in and clean out and refill the root canals.) So like John said it should not be able to hurt. Of course, there is a nerve beneath it that runs along the jaw line and that can hurt. It did last night! And, not to sound negative, but the tooth itself can still fall apart. I’ve had a lot of experience with that unfortunately. My teeth seem to be under the impression that life was supposed to end at 50.
A day later:
I saw the dentist yesterday. He thinks there is infection between the roots. He suggested that we try ozone therapy. He said that helps in this sort of case about 50% of the time. If it doesn’t help the only other option is to pull the tooth. So even though I am a little skeptical, I am willing to give it a try. He gave me the first injection yesterday. The next two will need to wait until after he returns in about two weeks.
I am feeling more peaceful than usual over this new dental dilemma. Maybe I am just numb and in denial. Or maybe I have grown a little. After so many, many, many dental disasters over the last several years maybe I am learning that it will not really ruin my life to have another one. I guess all my efforts to overcome pessimism may be paying off. This won’t last forever and it won’t ruin everything. And unless you count years of tooth clenching and grinding, and as a child not good enough dental hygiene, it isn’t my fault, or the fault of one of my previous dentists. It just is part of life in a fallen world. This isn’t heaven yet. Jesus said in this life we would have tribulations (and yes I do include dental disasters in that!)
Maybe I should stop calling them dental disasters after all that is a pessimistic way of talking about them and I am supposed to be overcoming pessimism. But it is also alliterative and sounds more interesting than just saying tooth problems. And to be honest I do want a little sympathy. I have had an almost unbelievably bad run of dental problems for way too long. This was not in the script! I wasn’t supposed to have any more tooth trouble! I could get really worked up about it (maybe I sound like I already am!) but I guess God has a different script than I do.
Getting back to the beginning and the sitting under the apple tree thing… I am wondering how can I find that sweet fruit in this situation? In an attempt to apply that idea, yesterday as I waited to see the dentist, I read the third chapter of John’s Gospel for my next ladies’ small group meeting.
I had various thoughts that I noted down. Nothing really blindingly stupendous. But then apples are like that, simple, sweet and nourishing but not flashy. But it was sweet to just ponder scripture while I waited, it beat worrying! Or even reading a magazine which is what I usually do in those circumstances-- not that there’s anything wrong with that.
One thing I got a little kick out of was in verse 29 when John the Baptist was talking to his disciples about Jesus, he said “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” At first thought it isn’t obvious that he needed to use that metaphor. He probably could have used some other imagery to explain to his disciples why it was ok that Jesus was gaining in popularity. But of course, there are no accidents in scripture. He used that metaphor because that is what Jesus is: our Bridegroom. And we are His bride! It was a neat little coincidence to get that little confirmation and tie-in to the Song of Songs even while waiting in the dentist’s office and reading in the Gospel of John.
No comments:
Post a Comment