Did You Catch It?
No lip stick, Bag Baum, Blistex, etc. would work on my dry lips. In the end my lips rejected any moisturizing concoction. Knowing something else was going on, I considered hypothyroidism as the culprit. But by the end of last weekend my lips were on fire. Layman’s theories were irrelevant as I obsessed about calling the doctor first thing Monday morning for some relief.
Infantigo. What? Dr. Enoch believed it was an infection, possibly the highly contagious “infantigo”, akin to pink eye, which has a rapid ability to spread. The disinfecting wipes for the carts at the grocery store attempt to protect us from this and other germs. I had remembered a client mentioning his two kids got infantigo from a shopping cart.
Whatever it was, it was gross. And the healing process after the antibiotic actually made me look even worse–ghoulish with scabs all over my lips and surrounding skin, Yet, I was grateful for the battle of good and bad germs dueling around my mouth. My grotesque appearance was a minor side effect.
Not coincidentally, I read in my morning mediation book about a person being intentional about her attitude. Instead of complaining about the high cost of her prescriptions, she chose to have gratitude to be born in the age of antibiotics.
No kidding!
I’ve had several incidents that without having antibiotics, this situation included, I could have easily been a goner.
It reminds me that everything about our life is not an accident–where we are born, what we look like, our talents and challenges, the happenings of the world– are all sophisticated parts of God’s salvation plan. And we have a unique mission to fulfill as part of the higher plan. And if we don’t do it, there is no backup. Opportunities, of which we may have no awareness, to bring another soul to Christ are gone.
So I figure with my lips on the mend in a world with antibiotics, God has some big things in store for me in his master plan. It’s not quite time to retire my jersey.
Catholic Women’s Guide to Healthy Relationships Tip: Appreciate the blessings of the age you live in by investing more in knowing and doing God’s will.
