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| not my actual mouth pictured here.....:o) |
It was three weeks ago that I walked out of Dr. Tebbencamp’s office with a dental treatment plan that would cost just under a grand to complete. “And that’s if the one tooth doesn’t turn out to be a root canal,” he explained. I appreciated his forthrightness and no nonsense attitude, but still wished the prognosis had been slightly easier to take as well as the dollar amount expected as payment.
A week later I sat in the chair, braced for the root canal that was to come. “I’m going to ask you to hold on to the arms of your chair,” he said as he prepped the tortuous devices behind me, conveniently out of my line of sight, “Some people feel this and it surprises them.” My reply was to shift uncomfortably in the seat, grunt in disapproval, and shut my eyes, praying that I wouldn’t feel a thing. Luckily, there was no surprise of pain, and only moments later I heard, “well, that went well…want to see what a nerve looks like?” By the shake of my head I declined looking at the remains of my decayed tooth and within twenty minutes I was scheduling my follow up appointment, trying to talk through the numbness and stiffness radiating from the right side of my jaw.
Providentially, I had enough money in my account to pay the enormous fee of the morning, but my heart sank at the thought of more appointments and payments to come. We had only accomplished half of the "plan" and the root canal threw everything off. I worried about the deadline of my upcoming appointments, and with no upcoming employment....
But two weeks later...and I can pay it! Now obviously some other unforeseen wrench can get thrown in the plans, but as for now, as I go in to finish this root canal... the money is there. It came in such unique ways, a gift, a week of housesitting, an honorarium...it wasn't till I sat down with the numbers that I saw what was happening. God provided, in His way, and in His time.
Matthew 6 says, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" I read this passage the other day, resting in its promise. God loves us, wants the best for us, and it doesn't simplify all of life into some sort of easy road where everything gets taken care of and we don't have to do anything. We are assured that in life there will be trouble, but that God will be right beside us. And so as I spend two days back in that painful chair with a dentist I haven't decided whether I actually like yet, I'm holding on to the greater plan, the greater timing....and hopefully will come out on the other side just above broke, with healthy teeth... :o)
But two weeks later...and I can pay it! Now obviously some other unforeseen wrench can get thrown in the plans, but as for now, as I go in to finish this root canal... the money is there. It came in such unique ways, a gift, a week of housesitting, an honorarium...it wasn't till I sat down with the numbers that I saw what was happening. God provided, in His way, and in His time.
Matthew 6 says, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" I read this passage the other day, resting in its promise. God loves us, wants the best for us, and it doesn't simplify all of life into some sort of easy road where everything gets taken care of and we don't have to do anything. We are assured that in life there will be trouble, but that God will be right beside us. And so as I spend two days back in that painful chair with a dentist I haven't decided whether I actually like yet, I'm holding on to the greater plan, the greater timing....and hopefully will come out on the other side just above broke, with healthy teeth... :o)
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