Opus 2024-362: Armpit Healing

Yesterday I went through a time of, shall we say, low spirits.  Something happened, and I responded like a child who just realized that his nose was dirty, or some such thing.  I went outside and stared at the horizon.  In my heart, I knew that God was there because I meet him at the spot every morning.  However, I was not in the mood to be encouraged.

God gets really good at patting me on the head and distracting me.  The thought occurred that it’s like a little child who has got an owie.  Their whole world is focused on that stubbed toe.  It’s like the end of the world has come and the screams and lamentations have no end.  How do you deal with that?  I guess you could just ignore it and walk away and figure they’ll get over it eventually.  There are times when you do that.

There are other times when you reach out, wrap your arms around them, and squeeze.  When they get to the point where they’re having trouble breathing, you start tickling their armpits.  You may have a whole list of other things that will distract them and irritate them to the point where they start laughing.  Once you get to that point, the terrible injury is forgotten, and life goes on.

I am not sure that God doesn’t treat us that way at times.  He does that if we let him.  Sometimes the child is just so stubborn and their pain so real that they don’t want to be distracted.  They don’t want to be healed.  They don’t want to get well.  They love the attention.  We get that way with God too.

So next time you stub your toe, being serious, or not, make sure that you’re willing to except the attempts of God to reach out and tickle your armpits.

homo unius libri