I know...it's cliche. But it's still important. We go through life day after day, month after month, falling into patterns - sometimes good, sometimes not so good. And we forget. We forget to look at what God has given us. We forget to appreciate the gifts. To take time to deviate from what's normal and what's expected. And then something happens.
For us, it was simple. We woke up one morning and my precious little one had a swollen face. It was hugely swollen. She was unrecognizable. I thought - she has strep! Because that's how this little one presents with strep - she gets scarlet fever on her face. And I took her in to the doctor's office where they ran a strep test, and it came back negative. What?!? I KNOW she has strep. So they sent us to the lab to double check. But in the meantime, she looked so pathetic. It's true, she felt fine! But she looked pathetic. And in that day of nothing is normal, I was reminded of the treasure that I have. The precious child. Precious children. And so we threw the rest of the day to the wind. We played family games. We snuggled. We read books. I dropped her brother off at dance. And then, on this gorgeous, unexpected spring day, we went to pick him up - on foot. Bethany ran ahead, jumping from tree to tree. We met her brother, who was surprised when he couldn't find the car. And delighted to walk on such a beautiful day, with the dog, and the sister with the swollen face, and the mother who was smiling and said yes to going out for ice cream.
I'm not a fan of illness. I'm not a fan of swollen faces. But I recognize that sometimes, God uses the situations around us to remind us of the gifts He's given. The treasures we sometimes take for granted. He reminds us that we need to stop. And smell the roses.
