CALM AND REASSURANCE

I was three years old, as I recall.  I lived with my parents and brother in an apartment in Jackson, Michigan.  We didn’t own a car at that time and I remember that when I had a terrible ear ache my mom called a taxi.  The memory is kind of hazy but I recall feeling miserable and leaning my head against my mom’s arm as the driver took us to the hospital.  At the hospital the doctor wanted to look in my ear because what had happened is that my mom had been cleaning my ear with a Q tip at home and I had suddenly turned and the Q tip had jammed quite far into the ear causing bleeding.  Well, the doctor wanted to look and I was going to have none of it.  I resisted with all the effort I could muster and even with reinforcements of the staff I managed to hold them off for a time.  They finally conquered by rolling me tightly into a sheet.  At that point I resorted to hysterical cries as they grasped and pressed my head to hold it in place.  There were little murmured conversations going on around me and terrifying clicks and other unidentifiable sounds.  I felt the probe going into my ear and I held my eyes shut as tight as possible.   “Julie,” I heard the doctor say.  He said it almost as a melody.  “Ju-lie,  guess what I see?  I see a bunny.”  That was all it took, and my fear went away, because of one man who knew how to talk to a child.  

Even as adults we experience times when we’re fearful because of the unknown or uncertainty of a situation.  We fear a bad outcome perhaps or we’re afraid because we’ve taken on a new responsibility.  We might be facing something we never expected and we’re wondering how to get through it.  It’s always good to have someone we can talk to, but of course the best thing to do is to go to God in prayer.  There are many reassuring words we can hear from people, but they can’t put that calmness within our spirit.  That has to come from the Lord.  There truly is nothing to equal the healing, calming touch that God provides.  And so as a child I needed someone to tell me in a way I could understand that there was nothing to fear, but when I became an adult “I put away childish things” and my understanding became clear because of Christ.