Taking It

I have learned many lessons from my kids. Some about joy. Some about pain.
A couple of years ago, Parker had a bike wreck. He was goaded into taking his bike off an 18 inch ramp by our cute but devilish neighbor. The bike went up...and Parker went down...faceplanting into the dirt.
Later, in the emergency room, he writhed and cried and squeezed my hand while they scrubbed his raw face and flushed his eye by placing a plastic tube onto his eyeball and forcing fluid through it. I couldn't stop the pain...turn back time...take his place. I could only sit with him in his pain. It was tough. But it was eventually over. We went home with bandages, pain medicine, and the peace of mind that a clear x-ray gives.
As he lay on the bed, watching tv that night, he suddenly squeezed his eyes shut and started shaking his leg hard and fast. My sister, who happened to be visiting that weekend, asked him what he was doing. He replied, through clenched teeth, "I'm trying to take it!" It was funny. But true.
So this weekend, when that same sister came through my door, emotionally "wrecked" by the crash of her marriage, I did what I could do. I couldn't stop the pain...turn back time...take her place. But I could sit with her in her pain. And when we cry, shout, eat or don't eat, pray, sleep or don't sleep...don't be surprised. We're just trying to take it.
It will be tough. But eventually it will be over. And we will go on with strength, scars, and the peace of mind that a loving God gives.