Strep Seems Easy

This morning I was reading in the book of Mark. My daily section today was the account of Jesus being taken before the Sanhedrin and beaten by the guards when He made the claim to be the Son of Man. I was picturing it all in my head and I started thinking. That must have looked so chaotic to everyone there. I'm guessing the followers of Christ were convinced that this was out of God's control, that clearly He had no part in this and would stop it if He could. I can just imagine them thinking that God is pacing, worried about what will happen next. But, many years later, we have the luxury of seeing the big picture and knowing that God carefully orchestrated those events to fulfill prophecy and save our sorry souls.

On a much smaller scale, yesterday was like that for us. For a few minutes I fought the urge to think that God had lost control. That He had fallen asleep on the job and forgotten that we belong to Him. It all seemed so chaotic, that it seemed impossible that God had His hand on it.

So now that I have you all more worried you should be, here's what happened. Yesterday morning Rachel had a follow up with her glaucoma surgeon in the morning. He said that the tube has opened (Praise God) and the pressure is down. Then he said, "Hmmm, that's interesting." (Translation in my head: THE SKY IS FALLING CHICKEN LITTLE). He looked for a few minutes, said something about erosion, and left to get another specialist from across the hall (her corneal specialist). The two of them had a conversation that may as well have been in German. I understood every fifth word, and then it was only because they were words like, "and" and "the". The second doctor left, after telling me that I was to come to his office as soon as I left the one I was in.

So there I sat. Not a clue in the world as to what was going on. All I could manage to say, "What does this all mean?" Dr. Zalta apologized for being so technical and explained it like this. Imagine that you put a new sprinkler system in your entire yard. You cut and slice, pull back the grass and dirt, and lay the plumbing, in a very intricate pattern. Then you lay more dirt and sod down to cover the plumbing. Now imagine that there is a slope in your yard and water and wind start to erode the grass. Now instead of seeing the grass or dirt, the plumbing is exposed. In two different sections of Rachel's eye the tissue has broken down and the plumbing is exposed. They are not sure if it is the result of an infection, but it doesn't appear to be. They did 5 cultures on her eye (enter the giant q-tip on her eye again). Then they put a big, clear contact lens over the surface of her eye which will act as a bandaid. She is back to getting drops every 2 hours. And we wait. We go back on Thursday, and then again on Monday. They are hoping it will heal itself. I was afraid to ask what happens if it doesn't.

So there we sat. And like I said, I was a little stunned. We have had complications with this surgery before, but not this one. It's new and scary. But then, Praise God, these two thought kept coming back: "I know that you are God and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You." and "But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases."

So, there is purpose in it. And the God who loves me enough to die for me, decided this day, just as He has decided all the rest. And although today I am still a little concerned for the outcome, and more emotional than I should be, I can look back and know that God is faithful. I am so thankful that we do belong to Him and that He isn't worried about the outcome. And one day we will think this is all light and momentary.