Fevers. I hate when my little ones get fevers. The burning skin radiates heat.
I look into those glassy eyes and wish I could cool the little body with a touch.
mama, I’m cold
A hot body, strangely, shivers. Working furiously to heat itself, but feeling cold. The body burns in order to shed the invader.
Fevers are actually quite brilliant. My medical brain tells me that my child’s hypothalamus is working as it should… raising the temperature to chase away the virus.
burning away the bad
My mommy brain just wants my little one to feel better… wants the heat to go down, just to let my child sleep… comfortably. I just want comfort.
comfort can delay the burning of the bad
I think this must be the way it is for all of us. God burning away the bad… to get to the good… to get us to where we are supposed to be. Whole and healthy. The way there is not, I suppose, through comfort.
It’s easy enough to take the path of comfort, and as mommy I provide it.
Should the soul take the way of comfort? Avoid the fire? The burning of the bad?
This burning brings shivering… touches a cold corner of a heart, burning away the invading sin… warming to open to God’s will. The shivering soul burns away the invader. The invading human qualities… burning to clear the path toward godliness.
My child asks for one thing… a cold drink. A cold drink of water… the refreshing water of life to cool the burning of the bad.
John 4:14
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
I give my little one the water to drink…
just as I am given the water.
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